One day full of life…..

It's difficult to define what it means to truly live. When we try to find meaning in life using our logic, it becomes more confusing as our mind starts playing tricks on us. The mind tends to swing between positive and negative thoughts, and meditation is one place where the mind disappears.

We feel that life is light and smooth when we are happy. In those moments of heartfelt happiness, maybe we are living in the true sense.

There is an interesting story about living which goes like this: Once, a person was very upset about his problems and used to say, "I am not alive," claiming that his life had become like that of a dead person due to his problems. Most of the time, he never felt like he was truly living. One day he died, and after a few seconds of death, he suddenly realized that he was alive. At first, this story didn't make sense to me as well. But after some days, I realized the following.

We are all admitted to school at a very early age, and in school, we learn all the necessary skills to understand the world, society, and people to live a better life in the future.

We spend 10-12 years in school learning these basic skills. Then we start our professional learning in colleges to acquire skills so that we can earn a living, and another 5-7 years of life are spent on learning professional skills.

Now, armed with knowledge and skills, we enter the professional world (job, business, professional field, etc.) to earn money or a living. Over our professional lives, we work hard to accumulate or try to accumulate means of luxury (cars, houses, property, etc.) to enhance our standard of living.

After 25 to 30 years of professional life, we retire and then suddenly realize that "Oh, all my life I just learned and prepared for a better life, and now I don't have enough time to live." Most of our lives are just spent on these preparations and learning, and in the meantime, we may be missing out on life in the true sense.

A single day full of life is better than years of preparation for a better living because we keep missing out on the happy moments of our lives.

Destiny and Accomplishment

A water drop in the ocean may get bored with its stagnant state or may wish to rise. It begins to sway with the wind waves, eventually evaporating and ascending to the sky, leaving behind all its comforts. It rolls with the clouds, faces thunderbolts, travels far away exploring new directions, and finally encounters the coldness and chilliness of altitude. As it cools down, loses its lightness, and falls on the slopes of mountains, plains, and dense forests as rain or again as water drops. Sometimes the water drop is caught up in the form of snow, but it does not like to remain solid; rather, it melts and flows. Now it loves to rush to low land where it can mix itself with the river and flow faster towards its origin. As a river, it crosses valleys and ranges of mountains, falls as waterfalls, and sometimes just gets lost underground, but all its moves and turnings are headed towards somewhere with dedication and determination that even rock dams can't stop it for long. Finally, the water drop reaches the ocean. Destiny accomplished. A small, hard object like the seed of a plant no longer wishes to remain in the shield of its protective layer. It bursts out of its secure zone, turning itself into tiny delicate seedlings and peeking out its head from underground darkness. There are a thousand and one risks as the tiny and delicate seedlings have to face adverse weather and many chances of being uprooted and plugged out, but still, it opens up itself to express its total potential. With time, the tiny hard seed expresses itself into a small plant with a few leaves and a still fragile stem. It faces the chill of winter, heavy rainfall, and horrifying storms but keeps on the struggle. Slowly, its fragile stems grow stronger, green leaves become dense, and the seed turns into a fully grown, tall, and strong plant. With the coming of spring, buds in the plant begin to sprout, and it doesn't stop there; finally, it widely opens up and blossoms into colorful flowers, spreading its sweetness, fragrance, and scent all around. Now, one small, hard, and grounded seed completely expresses itself into its full potential, turning into free, fragrant, and replicating into hundreds of similar seeds. Destiny accomplished. What about us as human beings, the finest creation of nature? Peace and satisfaction are only there when we know our true selves and express ourselves up to our full potential. The very first step towards it is keeping our mind calm using meditation as an instrument.

Do you know who you are?

Do you know who you are? You may say, "I am [your name]" with your surname and caste, because you belong to a specific ethnic group. You were given a name a few days after your birth to distinguish you from others of the same gender. Since the beginning of your education, you were taught to identify yourself with the full name given to you, and then to identify your relationships. You are the son/daughter of someone, the brother/sister of someone. As your social connections grow, you become a friend of someone and many other relationship identifications keep happening. You become someone's beloved when in a relationship, and a husband/wife after getting married. Then you become the father/mother of someone. Your profession and other identifications also become part of your identity. Your locality, nationality, religion, political views, and other factors contribute to the list of your identifications. Sometimes, you may become very proud of these identifications, feeling that they define you. Imagine removing all these tags from you for a few minutes and observe your existence in silence. In that deep silence and state of meditation, you might find a blank you with a surprising answer. It's a mind-blowing experience.

Running after Dreams....

Once in my dream, I saw a small child wandering with very curious eyes. He was so curious because everything he saw was amazing and very new to him. His coming to this earth has been only a few years 7-8 years and his sensing has just begun to give him a feel of his presence on this earth as he was beginning to know the things, people, and environment around him.

 

With no memories of the past and only an unfolding future ahead, he was free and happy. All he was seeing and feeling around him were wonderful and they were happening for the first time in his life. One day when he was playing alone, he saw a beautiful garden. With wondering eyes and a curious mind, he entered the garden. He was so happy and curious as if he found a piece of heaven on earth. The Garden was full of many species of flowers with varied colors and scents. There were green tall trees and birds on the branches were dancing and singing. The water in a beautiful pond at a corner was so still and seemed like in meditation peacefully.

 

On that sunny afternoon, he found himself in a wonderland under the blue sky. 

Now, with curious eyes, he looked around and saw the row of followers beautifully arranged in the harmony of colors and he went near to them. His hands automatically reached for one of the beautiful flowers to touch and feel it. But before he could nearly touch it something sharply pinched his soft fingertip and with pain he first time saw the inverted sharp thorn of a beautiful rose.

 

Maybe he learned flowers are not always soft and beautiful. 

Then he kept on his journey of this garden. Far on the horizon, the array of green blurry mountains was just like in the picture of his textbook and sometimes he had tried to draw them in his copy with his small hands.

 

As he was looking at a folk of birds flying over the sky, he saw something small and colorful coming down. His eyes just followed the creature and it slowly landed on a beautiful flower very near to him. In an instant, he rushed towards it but even faster the creature flew up. Though most of the things he was seeing had no name in his dictionary of mind, he was familiar with this beautiful butterfly with colorful wings. The colorful, playful, and delicate butterfly had begun to draw his attention. Sometimes, he thought that the butterfly was not going to come down but unexpectedly it again landed on the next flower and began to suck the nectar. He looked at it carefully from the distance of some feet. His eyes were amazed with the beauty of the butterfly its dance and movement. Gradually the desire to catch the butterfly began to grow in his mind.

 

Then he slowly approached near to flower with utter silence. The butterfly was unaware of his move. Now he was in very short distance. In that closer look, he found the butterfly even more attractive and he moved his hands slowly but the butterfly sensed the move and flew away. As it was flying, his eyes followed and he ran after it. His eyes were so fixed upon the butterfly that he even did not care where he was running and thorns were scratching his skin but he was not feeling even the pain. Despite his effort to track it, the butterfly just disappeared somewhere in the garden. By this time his desire to catch the butterfly had become so strong that he was determined to track and catch the beautiful butterfly. He kept on searching flower by flower in every corner of the garden for hours. He would have already had lunch by that time of the day if he was at home.

But today, in the garden with the passion of catching the butterfly, he had forgotten even the hunger and pain in his small legs. He was sweating but his search was going on. Even after hours of search, he was clueless about where the butterfly might be and there was no sign of it. Then he sat down on the ground feeling a little tired. Slowly, he was becoming hopeless and thinking about giving up this search.

 

All of a sudden, the butterfly landed very near to him in the distance not even feet away on the green grass of the ground. He was so happy and surprised to see his fading hope becoming the truth. This time he was so sure of catching the butterfly and was ready to take all percussion not to distract it. He slowly crawled on the ground in silence and approached very near to the butterfly then moved his hand towards it shaping his fingers likewise. Now, flicking wings were in between his fingers, and up to this moment may be butterfly was unaware. He was holding his breath to catch it but he could not hold it long enough and within the blink of his eyes, the butterfly flew up again and for seconds hovered around his head and landed on the tree branch. He quickly stood up. The butterfly flew away in the sky and disappeared in the darkening evening giving no chance of following.

As the darkness of evening was spreading, he remembered his home. Up to this time, he had forgotten his home, parents, thirst, and all the pain. Now with hopeless eyes, he found himself alone, tired, and hungry and then moved his steps slowly to return to his sweet home.

That day in the garden the child experienced and learned the lesson for the rest of his life.

Wake up Wake up....Sometimes feel I am still dreaming. Mediation is a way to wake up.

 

Notes:

Child: - Every one of us.

Garden: - This World

Butterfly: - Unlimited Desires

Being in touch with self.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not
in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes.”
~ Marcel Proust

“There is but one cause of failure and that is
a man’s lack of faith in his true self.”
~ William James

“If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.”

-Mark Twain

Power lies not in being right, but in being real.
-Someone

Every day, we experience mental and emotional influences and often lose touch with our true selves in the name of socialization. However, for our inner peace, it's important to listen to our own voice. We can follow a simple process to achieve this, which involves two steps:

1. Getting to know yourself: This step involves gaining a deeper understanding of our tendency to hide behind various masks and being willing to examine them.

2. Choosing to be yourself: By being true to yourself, we can move away from inner emotional turmoil and towards feeling lighter, liberated, and happy.

Meditation is a powerful tool in this process of self-examination and self-understanding.