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Pointer 14, December 12, 2013

Our psychological disposition towards children can be quite educative.  Being alive during our interactions with them helps both the children and the grownup. The following is a quotation on children from Khalil Gibran:

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.


Musing on the above lines during our calm times can bring in healthy and happy relationship with children.  That spirit carries over to the relationship with others too!   All of that can add to our in-depth living. 

 

Pointer 13, November 19, 2013

J. krishnamurti points out that the psychological dependence on a religious or other system, on a guru etc, sustains the self-interest and so no radical transformation can take place. What people want is a result which according to them will take them to God or heaven, or to some known spiritual heights. That approach, which separates the now and the future, is what clearly sustains the 'I', the ego. Radical transformation is one in which the ego gets dissolved, not given life to. It means that such transformation has to come from total freedom from dependence. JK says that this becomes very difficult because the habitual neurology is to depend on something external - be it a guru, a ritual, a book or a meditative technique. His pointer is as follows:

"The mind is not new if it has not died to all things of yesterday, to all the experiences, to all the envies, resentments, loves, so that it is again fresh, eager, awake and therefore capable of pure attention. Surely, it is only when the mind is free from all sense of inward dependence that it becomes one with that which is immeasurable."

Reflection on the above can bring about a change that is not within the imaginations of the mind.

 

Pointer 12    March 21, 2013

What does it mean to stand behind the mind and observe it?  This cannot be done through any technique; the reason is that all practices are rooted in self-interest that keeps us arrested in the mind.  When there is the eagerness to understand ourselves, self-awareness sets in and moves the center of attention to the region behind the mind.  One becomes a bystander to oneself.  This augments mental quietude and adds a spiritual dimension to our daily life.  The tendency to chase ego-satisfaction, be it through religion or otherwise, gets abated.  Abundant feeling towards all living creatures begins to express itself through us. 

 

Pointer 11    March 1, 2013

The episodes on near death experiences vary in many ways but we see a central pointer running through them all.  The unconditional love from the Light and the deep feeling of empathy towards all human beings as well as towards all living creatures are some aspects of that pointer.  it is interesting to note that quite a few of the NDE people turn into vegetarians.  However, the following questions do arise:

         1.  Why is it that not all aspects of the NDE occur to every experiencer?

         2.  Why do a few of the experiencers (about 3%) have a frightening NDE?

         3.  Does the way we live affect our NDEs?

These are some of the interesting issues in the research on NDE.  If you had an NDE, please communicate with me and contribute to the research.  In turn, you will also be benefited from the others' NDEs.  When the essence of NDEs becomes common knowledge, it will help human beings live without the fear of death and the fear of life too!

 

Pointer 10   January 11, 2013

This is about pre-death vision and telepathy.  The following excerpt is taken from the book "Transformed By The Light" authored by Melvin Morse, MD and Paul Perry.

After examining many cases of pre-death and shared visions, Melvin Morse says that he can only speculate that the same conditions that trigger a near death experience also trigger the ability to communicate with others.  He quotes the case of Edna and Tom of Phoenix, Arizona.  Their daughter was seriously ill with cancer in Milwaukee. After some treatment, she showed improvement.  However, the night after a chemotherapy session for her, Tom woke up in Arizona to see his daughter standing at the foot of his bed.  She was dressed in white and glowing brightly.  She sat at the foot of the bed and talked to her father.  He could not understand anything that she said but he felt a deep sense of peace at seeing her so "dressed up".

   Tom immediately awoke Edna and told her what he had just seen.  Edna did not question whether it was a dream.  Both of them knew what it meant - their daughter had died.

   In a few hours they received a call from their distraught son-in-law telling them what they already knew.  

There are quite a few things from this episode that we are confronted with. The place of consciousness beyond the mind, our continued existence in a different realm after bodily death, the communicability of a being from that realm, the ephemeral nature of life on this planet and its emphatic impact on us to be compassionate in all our relationships - these are some of the issues that we would like to reflect on.  Such reflections are sure to enrich our lives.  

 

Pointer 9     December 27, 2012

People interested in mysticism quite often come across parallels between it and modern science.  Here, Fritjof Capra's book "The Tao of Physics" is a classic and a well known text in this field.  The following paragraphs from that book are relevant:

"Although physicists are mainly concerned with rational knowledge and mystics with intuitive knowledge, both types of knowledge occur in both fields.  This becomes apparent when we examine how knowledge is obtained and how it is expressed, both in physics and in Eastern mysticism."

"The Eastern mystics repeatedly insist on the fact that the ultimate reality can never be an object of reasoning or of demonstrable knowledge.  It can never be adequately described by words, because it lies beyond the realms of the senses and of the intellect from which our words and concepts are derived.  The Upanishads say about it:

    'There the eye goes not, speech goes not, nor the mind.

      Without beginning, without end, higher than the great, stable -

      By discerning That, one is liberated from the mouth of death.' "

 

These lines from Fritjof Capra explain why the skeptics are unable to appreciate the messages from Near Death and Out-of-Body Experiences  

 

Pointer 8    August 21, 2012

J Krishnamurti usually directs our attention to the deeper aspects of the mind which he refers to as consciousness.  The following lines from him set us reflecting along those lines:

"Only in relationship can you know yourself, not in abstraction and certainly not in isolation.  Even in a monastery you are related to the society which has made the monastery as an escape, or closed the doors to freedom.  The movement of behavior is the sure guide to yourself; it is the mirror of your consciousness; this mirror will reveal its content - the images, the attachments, the fears, the loneliness, the joy and the sorrow.  Poverty lies in running away from this, either in sublimation or in its identities.  Negating without resistance, this content of consciousness is the beauty and compassion of intelligence."


The above pointer can generate the necessary interest in us to direct our attention into ourselves and let the understanding bring about the transformation in its own way.

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Pointer 7    July 6, 2012

The following lines are from Osho:

As you live more experiences, more memories accumulate, and it becomes a mountain - really heavy.  People are crushed under it.  The moment you see that it is useless, you can drop it.  It is not clinging to you, you are clinging to it, so you simply take your hands away.

Pointer 6   June 21, 2012

Like the last Pointer, this one is also from Eckhart Tolle.  While discussing the matter of suffering, he says, "Suffering is necessary in order to understand that it is unnecessary."!  Probing into this profound statement can help us gain insight into our life on this planet.    

 

Pointer 5   May 27, 2012

   In his book "Stillness Speaks", Eckhart Tolle presents many issues for reflection.  He makes the following statement at a place:

   "The secret of life is to die before you die and know that there is no death."

It is clear that the first 'die' refers to the psychological death and the second 'die' to the physical death.  If the first one takes place, then one understands that, in the ultimate essence, one is immortal.  Then, the question obviously is:  How does the psychological death come about?  Pondering over this question, one begins a journey into oneself.  When the journey reaches sufficient depth, the psychological ending  can take place.  Thus, guiding oneself along that journey becomes the natural aspiration for the spiritually interested people.  Reflection along those lines  can be quite absorbing.    

 

Pointer 4    May 10, 2012 

It is good to reflect on the following paradox:

   J Krishnamurti often talked about choiceless awareness bringing radical transformation in us.  We cannot take it up as an item to be practiced because then we have made a choice!  So, choosing to be choicelessly aware is a contradiction in terms.  Then, how does choiceless awareness come into being?  Is it an accident? 

It would be nice to address ourselves to that question.

 

Pointer 3    April 29, 2012

People of Near Death Experience come back to tell us about their renewed vigor to live - live vibrantly and meaningfully.  They find meaning in every movement everyday, because when they are on the other side, they understand that everything is right and designed to help us evolve towards Divinity.  The rest of us - those who have not had a NDE - can derive a lot of insight and inspiration from those perceptions.   

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 Pointer 2   March 7, 2012

The immensity of the Universe is yet another pointer towards understanding our position within the larger scheme of things.  It is known that there are billions of galaxies in the Universe.   So, there must be trillions of stars and even a greater number of planets.  Many of them are likely to be habitable.  That is, many more and many different living beings would be there in this immensity.  That  gives us an idea of where we stand.  The claustrophobia in space dissolves;  also, the one in time.

    The following photographs were released by NASA and made public by Yahoo (Aug. 2011).  The photo on the left is a case of galactic collision, millions of light-years away.  So, by now, perhaps, they have finished their job! 

             Galactic Collision                                    Barred Spiral Galaxy

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 Pointer 1      January 5, 2012

Silence of the mind is like the one depicted by the still waters of a lake.  It can

accompany our daily life and help us appreciate Life's greatness.

 

 

 

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