Medicine for Anger
I am angry. I am angry with him. But I don’t want to be angry. He has always been a nice well behaved youngster. I gave him money because I had absolute trust in him and because I had some spare cash at the moment. I did not even expect it back. Let it go if it becomes useful to him, I thought. But he had said that he wanted it only for fifteen or twenty days to tide over a delay in collection of his own dues. It is now one month and he has neither turned up nor contacted over phone. May be he is in some difficulty, I don’t know. His mobile phone is dead. And, after he shifted his room the land line is not yet in place. I am getting angry with him more for not contacting me, more for not behaving as I expected him to do, than for not returning the loan. After all, had I not written it off even while I gave it? Yet I am getting more and more angrier. I don’t want to be angry.
Streams of thought about him and the loan persist in my mind and reinforce the anger more and more as I try to ward off the anger. And the anger, nagging and exerting itself, generates more thoughts about him and about the incident. Why can’t the anger subside, writing off the loan from my mind? How can I make another behave as I expected? That would be impossible. I can’t change others. I must change myself. I should not have the anger bothering me. I can not always nurture a resentment or ill will in me if he does not at all repay the loan. Why should feelings of goodwill that got built up in the course of a few years be lost in one incident? Again thoughts persist. It is because once the angry mood is triggered in the mind, it remains for quite some time. It does not go away. Out of control thoughts arising from the mood takes it up making it stronger and stronger.
Suppressing the thoughts does not help so long as the source, the problem, is not resolved.
How to get rid of the mood itself? And thereby, the anger?
The entire thing got abruptly solved and dissolved when he rang up to say that he is coming to see me right now, coolly apologizing for the delay.
All the thoughts, the anger, the resentment, the speculations and anxiety were unnecessary! And they disappeared in a jiffy! Feelings of goodwill reappeared instantly!
But the question still remains, how to get rid of anger?
Will some medicine help?
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
restful mind
Restful mind:
Sometimes the mind seems to be incapable of being calm and quiet – still. There is always a lurking apprehension, restlessness, as if waiting for something, or something is impending to happen. There is a curiosity to probe what it is. Is it a fear of something unpalatable happening, or just the result of physical irritation, discomfort, uneasiness?
Can the mind be still and quiet in spite of the disturbances, irritation or apprehension arising from the body? There seems no point in waiting for these things to subside or to be subdued and eliminated.
Through all of them the mind has to be at rest.
Sometimes the mind seems to be incapable of being calm and quiet – still. There is always a lurking apprehension, restlessness, as if waiting for something, or something is impending to happen. There is a curiosity to probe what it is. Is it a fear of something unpalatable happening, or just the result of physical irritation, discomfort, uneasiness?
Can the mind be still and quiet in spite of the disturbances, irritation or apprehension arising from the body? There seems no point in waiting for these things to subside or to be subdued and eliminated.
Through all of them the mind has to be at rest.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Mind
When I read about the mind in any book or magazine the meaning of the word mind confuses me? Is it the running thoughts, the storehouse of sense impressions, the memory, the vacuumized brain, or merely the space meant for thought? Or is it all these put together? If there are no thoughts can it be still called the mind? The word is loosely used with no precise meaning conveyed, I feel.
The mind is perhaps the storehouse of memory from which no single item or piece of memory has yet arisen to become a thought. Thoughts are therefore different from mind, but part of the mind
The mind is perhaps the storehouse of memory from which no single item or piece of memory has yet arisen to become a thought. Thoughts are therefore different from mind, but part of the mind
Thursday, July 3, 2008
looking at myself
Looking at myself:
“In the smile of the flower that blooms there dwells God; in the cool breeze that caresses there dwells God; In the river that flows quietly, in the grandeur of the mountain, in the trees and the sky, there is God; We pray to thee, Oh, Lord!”
This is a rough translation of the prayer I heard coming through the mike in the voice of a child at the start of to-day’s morning function at our club. It was just part of a silly ritual. On arrival there I had been feeling that the whole atmosphere there of the anniversary festivity was silly, sham, superficial. How sad for an organization in which I am a member!
At that moment of sadness and self-pity it suddenly dawned on me that Man invariably prays stupidly not knowing, not apprehending, what is God or even knowing whether there is actually a god as presumed. Poor Man! He can never understand the secret of Life! And he does not know that he cannot know. And yet he prays, - just because he does not know.
Next day, I saw myself in the video recording of the Anniversary. I felt sad seeing that old man struggling to reach the mike to say a few words (was he lisping!) and chant a few lines of Bhagavad Geetha. That was me! And is that the real me, the physical me now? But I never felt that bad while at it on the stage! Seeing yourself in reality is a strange experience! Naturally on the mental and spiritual side also the image of myself would need revision!
In fact I had not actually looked at myself, seen myself, or perceived myself or felt myself in its real sense. So far, my impression of myself was a built up imagination. I have started only now to look, to see, and to feel myself.
This looking is not the type of meditation in which at the beginning you see or feel thoughts entering your mind and disappearing, slowly making the mind calm, quiet, and finally emptying it. This is different. It is the opposite. I see or feel the thoughts, understand them, understand their relationships, how they are part of me, how they constitute me, how they behave, wherefrom they emerge, study their unique character in relation to what is ‘me’ and what is not ‘me’, and what is their common peculiarity, if any.
My thoughts are unique. My body is unique. Its genes are differently constituted from those of all other human beings. Therefore its functioning has its own peculiarities.
My body and mind are what they are to-day because of certain qualities and defects inherent from birth, and on which the present system of the life of mine has been built up brick by brick.
I have been breathing for nearly all through eighty-one years. But how many times have I actually noticed or paid attention to the peculiarities of my breathing, or was really conscious of the rhythm of my breathing? Only for a small fraction of the long time. Perhaps when I had difficulties with it. That was just for avoiding discomforts. Similarly for the beating of my heart. They do their work, whether I am conscious of them or not. I digest my food whether I am aware of it or not. I am not conscious of umpteen other functions of the organs of my body, most of which are highly complicated. I am in fact aware of only an incredibly small number of the infinite actions that my body performs every moment. But now I understand that I could have been aware of very many more functions of the body and mind had I been more attentive to them.
Understanding one’s instinctive and spontaneous behavior with the outside world, or noticing the pains, irritations, and discomforts of the body, is not what is meant by knowing oneself. Neither is it identifying and recognizing a self or ‘I’ within one’s mind, eliminating or subduing the thought processes.
It could be only the complete acceptance of all of one’s thoughts, all of one’s emotions, all of one’s irritations and discomforts of the body and mind, so that one is free of them, and free to use them or discard them. Use for what? Just to pull on with this life as long as it lasts with minimum discomfort. Greater things, if any, could be bye-products.
“In the smile of the flower that blooms there dwells God; in the cool breeze that caresses there dwells God; In the river that flows quietly, in the grandeur of the mountain, in the trees and the sky, there is God; We pray to thee, Oh, Lord!”
This is a rough translation of the prayer I heard coming through the mike in the voice of a child at the start of to-day’s morning function at our club. It was just part of a silly ritual. On arrival there I had been feeling that the whole atmosphere there of the anniversary festivity was silly, sham, superficial. How sad for an organization in which I am a member!
At that moment of sadness and self-pity it suddenly dawned on me that Man invariably prays stupidly not knowing, not apprehending, what is God or even knowing whether there is actually a god as presumed. Poor Man! He can never understand the secret of Life! And he does not know that he cannot know. And yet he prays, - just because he does not know.
Next day, I saw myself in the video recording of the Anniversary. I felt sad seeing that old man struggling to reach the mike to say a few words (was he lisping!) and chant a few lines of Bhagavad Geetha. That was me! And is that the real me, the physical me now? But I never felt that bad while at it on the stage! Seeing yourself in reality is a strange experience! Naturally on the mental and spiritual side also the image of myself would need revision!
In fact I had not actually looked at myself, seen myself, or perceived myself or felt myself in its real sense. So far, my impression of myself was a built up imagination. I have started only now to look, to see, and to feel myself.
This looking is not the type of meditation in which at the beginning you see or feel thoughts entering your mind and disappearing, slowly making the mind calm, quiet, and finally emptying it. This is different. It is the opposite. I see or feel the thoughts, understand them, understand their relationships, how they are part of me, how they constitute me, how they behave, wherefrom they emerge, study their unique character in relation to what is ‘me’ and what is not ‘me’, and what is their common peculiarity, if any.
My thoughts are unique. My body is unique. Its genes are differently constituted from those of all other human beings. Therefore its functioning has its own peculiarities.
My body and mind are what they are to-day because of certain qualities and defects inherent from birth, and on which the present system of the life of mine has been built up brick by brick.
I have been breathing for nearly all through eighty-one years. But how many times have I actually noticed or paid attention to the peculiarities of my breathing, or was really conscious of the rhythm of my breathing? Only for a small fraction of the long time. Perhaps when I had difficulties with it. That was just for avoiding discomforts. Similarly for the beating of my heart. They do their work, whether I am conscious of them or not. I digest my food whether I am aware of it or not. I am not conscious of umpteen other functions of the organs of my body, most of which are highly complicated. I am in fact aware of only an incredibly small number of the infinite actions that my body performs every moment. But now I understand that I could have been aware of very many more functions of the body and mind had I been more attentive to them.
Understanding one’s instinctive and spontaneous behavior with the outside world, or noticing the pains, irritations, and discomforts of the body, is not what is meant by knowing oneself. Neither is it identifying and recognizing a self or ‘I’ within one’s mind, eliminating or subduing the thought processes.
It could be only the complete acceptance of all of one’s thoughts, all of one’s emotions, all of one’s irritations and discomforts of the body and mind, so that one is free of them, and free to use them or discard them. Use for what? Just to pull on with this life as long as it lasts with minimum discomfort. Greater things, if any, could be bye-products.
Friday, June 27, 2008
ego,s suicide?
The learned spiritual teacher who gave a talk to an elite audience yesterday said that most of the problems and agonies of individuals arise only from their ego. The ‘I’ and ‘mine’, have to be got rid off. Eliminating the ‘I’ is the purpose of spiritualism so as to prepare oneself to approach divinity.
I have been hearing this too often. The ego, the culprit, has to be killed! It seems to be there in all the spiritual texts. It looked to me as a sort of extortion to commit suicide! The saying itself is traditional, and by repetition it has almost become a cliché that nobody pays much attention to, as if it is a saying taken for granted in any spiritual talk or discussion.
But for the understanding of the present day minds, there is a slightly different approach to the same idea or fact, which appeals to me. The EGO can never be eliminated. It can only be quieted. Elimination of the ego is suicide. Only when the person dies the ego gets eliminated from the body. Here what is meant by the EGO is the constant feeling of ‘I’ and not the boosting of the ‘I’ with self importance.
‘I’ is necessary in day to day life. Like the mind, and being a creature of the mind, ‘I’ is a useful tool that can be used positively and constructively. Here the user is also ‘I’, activated and identified by the underlying reality.
‘I’ is quiet in real meditation, may be even for a few moments only. But on coming out of meditation, ‘I’ becomes as active and as virulent as ever, unless the ‘I’ is understood while in meditation or otherwise. Every aspect of ‘I’ has to be directly perceived and understood before it can become quiet. When the ego is quiet one can go ‘beyond’ it. Or at least try to feel what is behind it illumining it. Direct perception of the ego in meditation eliminates its virulent negativity and allows itself to be quiet even on coming out of the state of meditation. Attention to all passing thoughts, images, visions, emotions, regression incidents etc. help to perceive and understand the ego allowing itself to be totally quiet until evoked for use.
As an example let us take the ego’s fear of death. Fear of death is part of the ego, the ‘I’. In meditation you either feel or perceive as an outsider, the nature of the fear of death with all the accompanying symbols, images, noises and visions. You notice the underlying fear and understand that there is actually only ‘fear’ underneath and not ‘fear of death’ in particular’ It is the one fear as a single emotion that is projected as fear of death, fear of disease, fear of losing one’s job, etc., etc. On understanding this, the fear, losing its identification with death, becomes quiet. That part of the ego is then quiet even after coming out of meditation, because the knowledge of the nature of fear remains with the ego. Simple fear as a dormant emotion may still be there because of one’s physical chemistry, but its intensity slowly fades.
I have been hearing this too often. The ego, the culprit, has to be killed! It seems to be there in all the spiritual texts. It looked to me as a sort of extortion to commit suicide! The saying itself is traditional, and by repetition it has almost become a cliché that nobody pays much attention to, as if it is a saying taken for granted in any spiritual talk or discussion.
But for the understanding of the present day minds, there is a slightly different approach to the same idea or fact, which appeals to me. The EGO can never be eliminated. It can only be quieted. Elimination of the ego is suicide. Only when the person dies the ego gets eliminated from the body. Here what is meant by the EGO is the constant feeling of ‘I’ and not the boosting of the ‘I’ with self importance.
‘I’ is necessary in day to day life. Like the mind, and being a creature of the mind, ‘I’ is a useful tool that can be used positively and constructively. Here the user is also ‘I’, activated and identified by the underlying reality.
‘I’ is quiet in real meditation, may be even for a few moments only. But on coming out of meditation, ‘I’ becomes as active and as virulent as ever, unless the ‘I’ is understood while in meditation or otherwise. Every aspect of ‘I’ has to be directly perceived and understood before it can become quiet. When the ego is quiet one can go ‘beyond’ it. Or at least try to feel what is behind it illumining it. Direct perception of the ego in meditation eliminates its virulent negativity and allows itself to be quiet even on coming out of the state of meditation. Attention to all passing thoughts, images, visions, emotions, regression incidents etc. help to perceive and understand the ego allowing itself to be totally quiet until evoked for use.
As an example let us take the ego’s fear of death. Fear of death is part of the ego, the ‘I’. In meditation you either feel or perceive as an outsider, the nature of the fear of death with all the accompanying symbols, images, noises and visions. You notice the underlying fear and understand that there is actually only ‘fear’ underneath and not ‘fear of death’ in particular’ It is the one fear as a single emotion that is projected as fear of death, fear of disease, fear of losing one’s job, etc., etc. On understanding this, the fear, losing its identification with death, becomes quiet. That part of the ego is then quiet even after coming out of meditation, because the knowledge of the nature of fear remains with the ego. Simple fear as a dormant emotion may still be there because of one’s physical chemistry, but its intensity slowly fades.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Sybols of Terror and fear
Symbols of terror and fear
Behind the ancestral joint family house we were living way back in the twenties of the last century, there was a hill known by the same name as that of my family. It was a hill with naturally terraced slopes thickly vegetated and with wild growth of tall trees like teak wood, jack fruit, mango, and a large number of other jungle wood. There were even a few sandal wood trees. While climbing up one could see hares, rabbits, and wild fowl running about. At night we could hear the howling of jackals, wild cats and the hooting of large owls, known to be an omen signifying death somewhere in the area.Once we reached the top of the hill we could run on flat plain ground carpeted with green grass stretching from one end on the right to the other end on the left, where there was the famous Siva temple. Portions of the flat plain nearer the temple was rugged with black boulders. During the Onam season we, the group of boys and girls in the house, of eight to twelve years age, used to climb up the terraces to reach the top where there were plenty of bushes on the sides full of flowers of all hues to pluck and gather.I would run up the first few terraces with all energy and enthusiasm, but would have to immediately slow down breathless while others would happily proceed to move up much ahead. I would feel tired with a sort of heaviness crushing my chest. Stopping for a minute or two, I would attempt to catch up with the others. But a sort of fear and loneliness haunted me then making me afraid of being left alone Yet, I would push myself up, not wanting to be considered unfit to go up.On the third or fourth day of the first truck up on my being allowed in the team, as I parried for breath, I noticed some newly half burnt and charred logs of wood kept by the side at the edge of one of the terraces. Suddenly, a funny feeling engulfed me making me sad and afraid. Something was eerie there! Other boys told me in whispers that the logs are left-over of the cremation of some dead body. Somebody had died a couple of days earlier. Terror struck me in the pit of my stomach as if it was waiting for a reason to strike. I somehow pretended as if nothing had happened, but while returning made it a point to walk as far away from the logs as possible covering myself from it behind other boys. The fear remained and haunted me at night, the dark, charred logs appearing before my closed eyes.Thereafter, I felt terror and torment whenever I crossed the charred logs, any charred logs, and sometimes even those which had no connection with any cremation or death. It was as if the terror was always there within oneself waiting for an opportunity to haunt. Charred logs, a symbol of death served as a trigger.As time passes one wards off from the mind all fearful and uneasy thoughts and symbols to get along with day to day life. Emotional upheavals of everyday life and absorption in work help one to keep aside what is unpleasant and fearful. But they are never forgotten altogether. They come up and surface later on whenever the mood is depressing.The opportunity for going into the phenomenon came when I suffered a heart problem at the ripe old age of seventy-five years. I had to get an angiograph done. Now I have a CD showing the beating of my heart and the blood vessels supplying blood to my heart. From the time of my birth I have been having an insufficient blood vessel supplying blood to my heart, and I have been living all along only because of a not-so-efficient connecting vessel from one side of the heart to the other known as a ‘collateral’. A sinking feeling, with fear and terror, is part of the problem whenever any exertion is done with an insufficient heart.Connecting everything together, I came to the following conclusion. The insufficiency of my heart started manifesting itself as soon as I climbed a few terraces of the hill of my childhood. I started becoming breathless, started having the sinking feeling and the fear of death. At that exact moment I noticed the charred logs that had a connection with death, and got mentally fixed to it. A coincidence or not, the insufficiency of the heart, the breathlessness, the fear and terror, the charred logs, cremation, dead body and the natural fear of death, all combined together to create an obsessive fear of charred logs! Does Destiny or Almighty pre-plan such a thing to teach a person an elevating lesson? I wonder.
Blank mind?
When the mind is deliberately kept silent, it is blank with no thought allowed to be present. But it is not naturally silent, not spontaneously quiet. Lurking behind, waiting to erupt out are fears and thoughts not allowed to come up and surface.What are they? Fears to be tackled, tasks to be completed, disputes and controversies to be settled, problems to be solved, and emotions that are suppressed. When all these are lurking below the surface of the blank mind how can deeper and deeper disturbances lying dormant in the subconscious come up breaking the barrier of the superficial thoughts and fears near the surface?Therefore what is in the surface has to be first allowed to come up and exhaust itself by directly seeing them and understanding them, if thoughts and emotions lying dormant deep within are to be noticed and tackled. Therefore it is not advisable to try to create a silent mind in order to avoid facing minor disturbances. What is needed is only not to go along with the disturbances identifying with any part of it. Let them come up. Just observe them for what they are, superficial unrealities.Often when the mind is naturally silent also, it is a blank. Is there then nothing underneath striving to come up? Is it really blank? Yes, and No. Yes, in the sense that no thought or image recognizable at the moment comes up. But No, it is not blank, when you consider the screen before the closed eyes.There is a screen in front of the closed eyes. The screen then slowly develops pixel dots of different colors. Clouds of different colors move one over the other forming clusters and shapes of no significance. But they are pleasantly bright. As you feel a little relaxed (drowsy), the shapes get meaning and significance. They become people, things, scenes, buildings and landscapes. Sounds appear from nowhere. What is deep down below may come up.Or may be, one is dreaming or hallucinating! Yet they are from far down within.But if the mind is in alert attention, although blank, it is a clean slate, a clear color screen with no images or shapes. Such a relaxed state is silent, peaceful and enjoyable. But what has it to do with the power that runs the show?
Behind the ancestral joint family house we were living way back in the twenties of the last century, there was a hill known by the same name as that of my family. It was a hill with naturally terraced slopes thickly vegetated and with wild growth of tall trees like teak wood, jack fruit, mango, and a large number of other jungle wood. There were even a few sandal wood trees. While climbing up one could see hares, rabbits, and wild fowl running about. At night we could hear the howling of jackals, wild cats and the hooting of large owls, known to be an omen signifying death somewhere in the area.Once we reached the top of the hill we could run on flat plain ground carpeted with green grass stretching from one end on the right to the other end on the left, where there was the famous Siva temple. Portions of the flat plain nearer the temple was rugged with black boulders. During the Onam season we, the group of boys and girls in the house, of eight to twelve years age, used to climb up the terraces to reach the top where there were plenty of bushes on the sides full of flowers of all hues to pluck and gather.I would run up the first few terraces with all energy and enthusiasm, but would have to immediately slow down breathless while others would happily proceed to move up much ahead. I would feel tired with a sort of heaviness crushing my chest. Stopping for a minute or two, I would attempt to catch up with the others. But a sort of fear and loneliness haunted me then making me afraid of being left alone Yet, I would push myself up, not wanting to be considered unfit to go up.On the third or fourth day of the first truck up on my being allowed in the team, as I parried for breath, I noticed some newly half burnt and charred logs of wood kept by the side at the edge of one of the terraces. Suddenly, a funny feeling engulfed me making me sad and afraid. Something was eerie there! Other boys told me in whispers that the logs are left-over of the cremation of some dead body. Somebody had died a couple of days earlier. Terror struck me in the pit of my stomach as if it was waiting for a reason to strike. I somehow pretended as if nothing had happened, but while returning made it a point to walk as far away from the logs as possible covering myself from it behind other boys. The fear remained and haunted me at night, the dark, charred logs appearing before my closed eyes.Thereafter, I felt terror and torment whenever I crossed the charred logs, any charred logs, and sometimes even those which had no connection with any cremation or death. It was as if the terror was always there within oneself waiting for an opportunity to haunt. Charred logs, a symbol of death served as a trigger.As time passes one wards off from the mind all fearful and uneasy thoughts and symbols to get along with day to day life. Emotional upheavals of everyday life and absorption in work help one to keep aside what is unpleasant and fearful. But they are never forgotten altogether. They come up and surface later on whenever the mood is depressing.The opportunity for going into the phenomenon came when I suffered a heart problem at the ripe old age of seventy-five years. I had to get an angiograph done. Now I have a CD showing the beating of my heart and the blood vessels supplying blood to my heart. From the time of my birth I have been having an insufficient blood vessel supplying blood to my heart, and I have been living all along only because of a not-so-efficient connecting vessel from one side of the heart to the other known as a ‘collateral’. A sinking feeling, with fear and terror, is part of the problem whenever any exertion is done with an insufficient heart.Connecting everything together, I came to the following conclusion. The insufficiency of my heart started manifesting itself as soon as I climbed a few terraces of the hill of my childhood. I started becoming breathless, started having the sinking feeling and the fear of death. At that exact moment I noticed the charred logs that had a connection with death, and got mentally fixed to it. A coincidence or not, the insufficiency of the heart, the breathlessness, the fear and terror, the charred logs, cremation, dead body and the natural fear of death, all combined together to create an obsessive fear of charred logs! Does Destiny or Almighty pre-plan such a thing to teach a person an elevating lesson? I wonder.
Blank mind?
When the mind is deliberately kept silent, it is blank with no thought allowed to be present. But it is not naturally silent, not spontaneously quiet. Lurking behind, waiting to erupt out are fears and thoughts not allowed to come up and surface.What are they? Fears to be tackled, tasks to be completed, disputes and controversies to be settled, problems to be solved, and emotions that are suppressed. When all these are lurking below the surface of the blank mind how can deeper and deeper disturbances lying dormant in the subconscious come up breaking the barrier of the superficial thoughts and fears near the surface?Therefore what is in the surface has to be first allowed to come up and exhaust itself by directly seeing them and understanding them, if thoughts and emotions lying dormant deep within are to be noticed and tackled. Therefore it is not advisable to try to create a silent mind in order to avoid facing minor disturbances. What is needed is only not to go along with the disturbances identifying with any part of it. Let them come up. Just observe them for what they are, superficial unrealities.Often when the mind is naturally silent also, it is a blank. Is there then nothing underneath striving to come up? Is it really blank? Yes, and No. Yes, in the sense that no thought or image recognizable at the moment comes up. But No, it is not blank, when you consider the screen before the closed eyes.There is a screen in front of the closed eyes. The screen then slowly develops pixel dots of different colors. Clouds of different colors move one over the other forming clusters and shapes of no significance. But they are pleasantly bright. As you feel a little relaxed (drowsy), the shapes get meaning and significance. They become people, things, scenes, buildings and landscapes. Sounds appear from nowhere. What is deep down below may come up.Or may be, one is dreaming or hallucinating! Yet they are from far down within.But if the mind is in alert attention, although blank, it is a clean slate, a clear color screen with no images or shapes. Such a relaxed state is silent, peaceful and enjoyable. But what has it to do with the power that runs the show?
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
living with snakes
` J.Krishnamurthy once said that living with the mind is like living with a live snake in the room. One has to be very alert and attentive.
I would like to add that living with one’s mind is more like living with a snake and a bottle of scotch. Whiskey is tempting. But one cannot risk being less alert and less vigilant. One does not know whether the snake is deadly or not. Vigilant, alert, attentive, one has to take a big risk if one wants to succumb to temptations. Images of pleasures come up on the surface to attract and tempt. Dangers lurk everywhere. Not one snake, but so many are there. In spite of all the dangers and temptations, and among them and through them life has to go on with a peaceful mind. Being peaceful and calm underneath is definitely difficult. But if you study and understand all the snakes, and their behavior, one can manage.
I would like to add that living with one’s mind is more like living with a snake and a bottle of scotch. Whiskey is tempting. But one cannot risk being less alert and less vigilant. One does not know whether the snake is deadly or not. Vigilant, alert, attentive, one has to take a big risk if one wants to succumb to temptations. Images of pleasures come up on the surface to attract and tempt. Dangers lurk everywhere. Not one snake, but so many are there. In spite of all the dangers and temptations, and among them and through them life has to go on with a peaceful mind. Being peaceful and calm underneath is definitely difficult. But if you study and understand all the snakes, and their behavior, one can manage.
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