It's good to have blinkers

There are times when we feel troubled by our circumstances. We bemoan fate, feel sorry for ourselves, imagine revenges and victorious endings and generally try to mentally come out on top. We trust to our imaginative mind to create a mental hiding place for us.

The truth is that the troubles are actually in the mind itself. They are there when we remember bad happenings. They are there when we anticipate a dangerous future. We try to escape from a disturbing 'mental movie' by creating a different 'mental movie'. We think we are escaping from a harsh reality and taking some time out.

Actually our biggest enemy is our mind itself. The only place where it does not flourish is in the current instant. When we are truly focussed on something we are doing, we have 'no time to think'. And without thinking, is there scope for worry?

The best place to take refuge from an imaginative mind is in the present moment. It is never as bad as anything we can remember in the past or imagine in the future. It is something we can always deal with and is in our power to change. The 'undealable' is scary. The mental movies are undealables.

A horse with blinkers is not necessarily a figure of derision. He is on the straight and narrow path of where he is going to plant his foot. That's all he needs to know.

Presence

Whenever you feel the Present fully,

You will feel the Presence.

Expecting a firing? Go get it now.

If we expect a bad outcome, we should try it out immediately, because there is always a chance that the outcome may be good. Undone, it sits as a bad possibility alone.

Similarly, if an outcome is expected to be good, we should delay the event as much as possible and enjoy the expectation, for, who knows, the outcome may well be bad.

Give father a break

A person living in society but aspiring to be a jnani goes through two stages in his life. As a householder (grihastha) he plays out all roles correctly and purifies his mind through right action. Then as a sannyasi (in-house mostly) he withdraws from daily responsibilities and focuses more on reading and discussing spiritual matters, trying to gain jnyana. Both these stages are important to evolution.

It is the duty of a father to start off a healthy grihastha life for his child. And it is the duty of a son to make possible a peaceful sannyasi life for his parents.

I hope I can do the first one. Definitely did not do the second one for my father. Till the last he had to remain bogged down in running the administration of his house and other daily chores, while I lived abroad. That should not have been so.

The 4th test match

Recently, I heard an excellent analogy to the attitude of a karma yogi.

Imagine that in a 5-test series, one team has already won the first three. They have practically wrapped up the series. So what is their attitude in the 4th test match? They are happy and satisfied because they have already won the big event and even losing this match can be taken in their stride. Yet they still strive to put in a good performance, maybe break some records for the books. There is no tension on their face and they respond to the other team's desperate sledging with grins!

The karma yogi knows that he is complete already, a winner of the series. Various things may please him and he will put in full effort for them but he is not tense about getting or not getting them. He does not build his own image out of ther people's comments. He is smiling inside.

Bounce

Karma and free will.
The wall and the ball.
Things happening just now, the present moment, is immutable.
What we decide to do just now is flexible.
Sometimes we are deluded into thinking it is the other way around.
Instead of trying to change the wall, let's learn how to bounce the ball.

Smell the wind

Emotions are like fragrance. For one, they are temporary. And for another, they are already out of our body, about to be wafted away. But they still affect our senses and make us feel that we are defined by that fragrance.

When we feel anger, it is already exposed and ready to be dissipated. Yet we define the 'remaining' ourselves as 'angry'. When I pass wind, is there any point defining myself by its smell and saying: "Oh, I am such a stinky person." It is gone.

While the fragrance is passing, just deal with it. Let's not define ourselves by it.