Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Avalanche of Thoughts

It is said ‘thinking will get us to the foot of the mountain, but faith will make us climb the mountain.’ So let us act out of faith. Doing so will bring vitality to one’s actions. But faith in God is not enough, one should have faith in oneself too. Role of experience in our lives There are three levels of knowing - gross, subtle and subtlest. Gross knowing is verbal knowing, subtle knowing is seeing the meaning of the word and subtlest knowing is experiential knowing. There are things which can be understood only by experience. For example, God is the ultimate experience and it is inexpressible. If you look at a flower from your mind, you see its chemistry; if you were to look at it from your heart, you see the poetry; and if you look at it from your being, you become one with the flower. To experience an experience is an art. We don’t experience an experience; we are always interpreting an experience. When one is lost in interpretation, then one looks at something through one’s thought process, ie through mental words. Words are the expression of one’s likes and dislikes. Our interpretations are very autobiographical and hence we don’t see or experience what is, we experience our old and known self. To live wisely means to create a space in one’s mind, which is capable of seeing and not just interpreting. Then one is vailable for an experience.
How can a miserable mind understand the right path? By just stopping to be miserable. Learn to wonder, learn to marvel, learn to see life without a thought. Thought is an expression of memory - memory of the past. And when you see something with thought, you see something with memory... and that is past. So you see the present with the past. In effect you don’t really see. When you are unhappy, the unhappy thought will relate to all the files of your unhappy memories of the past and the past unhappiness, like an avalanche will cascade into the present. Just drop being miserable. Then you will not fight with your mind and you will flow with what is.
- Swami Sukhabodhananda for "Times Wellness", TOI Jan 9, 2007

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