Category: mind

Here’s an interesting exercise.

Imagine a person suspects terminal illness. So they go to the hospital and get some check-ups done.

All day and all night, they are unable to eat, sleep or work properly, constantly consumed by the anxiety of what the report might contain. Will it be 12 months to live? Or even lesser?

And then the report comes.

The doc gives an “All clear”. Nothing to worry about.

All the problems of the world have suddenly vanished. Eating, sleeping, working have instantaneously become joyful activities.

But what changed? There was no terminal illness before the test, and no terminal illness after the test. Just the mind…

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It’s outstanding that India was able to send a rocket and rover to the Moon for less than a hundred mil. This when other countries have done it for billions. Of course there are differences in the way the launch was planned and the time taken to reach the destination. But this is, after all, truly rocket science, and I’m surely not a rocket scientist, not even a scientist.

But what struck me as amazing was how all the rocket scientists at ISRO prayed at various temples before the launch.

Why should they pray? They are people of science no? They are more scientists than many other classes of scientists perhaps. They can’t get away from anything like I do by saying, “Hey this is rocket science!”

They pray perhaps because despite knowing so much about science, they still acknowledge that there is too much they do not know. And a billion things that they cannot control. The prayer gives them strength and hope. It may or may not give them a successful rocket mission. But it wouldn’t matter, because they would always be giving their best, no matter the outcome.

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Came across this interesting term called “ataraxia” by Greek philosopher Epicures. It means “not being troubled”.

Not being troubled by what? By anything. Not taking the whole world’s problems and putting it on our heads. Not constantly living in anxiety.

All we need is some food, water and shelter. That’s how we relax too, isn’t it. Nothing much else is required.

The mind is at peace only when it isn’t desperately looking to acquire something else.

As Nathaniel Hawthorne says, “Happiness is like a butterfly, which when pursued is always beyond our grasp, but if you sit still down quietly, may alight upon you.”

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Here’s an interesting thought I came across.

How do we steady the mind? How do we prevent it from having thoughts? By sleeping of course!

In sleep, all the thoughts of the awakened state, at least whatever we were thinking about just before sleeping, is all gone.

But can we force ourselves to sleep? Impossible. The more we force ourselves to sleep by thinking that we should sleep, the more active and stressed out our mind becomes!

The 4 states of the mind – active, sleeping, dreaming and dhyan (meditative and ‘awakened’) are all natural states. If we “try” to reach these states, then we effectively only prevent these states from happening.

What can we do then? Simply prepare conditions for these favorable states to come about (like ensure a fit body for instance!).

PS: Dhyan, according to Shri Durga Charan Mishra is when one is doing something and becomes one with that process, then it is a state of dhyan, meditation.

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On a recent podcast (or videocast interview maybe?) with Smriti Irani, an exceptionally talented and empathetic Union Cabinet Minister of India, she was asked an interesting and important question.

“Do you believe in the role of destiny, luck, karma, circumstance etc. in bringing you to where you are in life today?”

“Yes, I do”, pat came the reply.

The follow up. “Why do you think God chose you for this role?”

This answer came even faster. “I have no idea. And anyone who tells you they do is lying!”

“Do you think about this?”

This to me was the clincher. “Not at all. I just say thank you. Because this opportunity that I have, is not an opportunity to question ‘why'”

How extraordinary a response is that! Absolutely love it.

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Came across a cute story where a man was having back to back office calls. His little daughter was insistent on playing with him at exactly that time.

So he hatched a quick plan. He saw a picture of a world map lying on table. He quickly tore it up into many pieces and gave it to his child to put it back together. A fun puzzle and one that would take a while to solve!

To his surprise, his daughter was back in a few minutes, having put the entire thing together. The man was shocked. How? Was she a geography-savant?

His baby girl told him that on the back side of the map was a picture of a person. All she had to do was to put the person together, and the map would come back on its own!

The lesson for me: When we find inner harmony, when we are put together properly, when our mood swings don’t destroy us, the world will be taken care of.

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We all want a placid mind when we meditate.

But the mind is a creature of habit.

Is the mind placid when we go about our normal routine?

Like when we are in office, how much time do we really spend on the task at hand? How quickly is our mind diverted to the notifications piling in on our phone? Or to the thought of what happened at home as we were leaving for work?

Or even when we are at home. If a family member is speaking to us – the spouse, the kids, the parents, anyone – are we looking them in the eye and giving our complete attention? Or is the mind simply darting from one thought to another?

Throughout the day, if the mind is constantly flitting like a bee from one flower to the next, then how can we expect it to sit still only during a 15 minute meditation practise in the morning?

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There’s only 1 Captain Cool in India, or at least only one who is nicknamed this and well known for it. No further suspense, and everyone knows anyway, none other than cricket legend MS Dhoni.

In a recent interview, he was asked how he always manages to remain so cool, calm and composed, even in times when games are so tense and spectators have chewed off all their nails!

His answer?

“Never think about the result.”

“Because it’s the result that brings in fear and leads to being the opposite of calm and cool and composed.”

“We control the controllables. Focus on what we can do. If we have put in all the effort, then the desired result has to come. And even if the desired result doesn’t come, then at least we would have grown in process.”

Such an outstanding lesson in stress management, from one who should arguably be amongst the most stressed out people in the country!

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That’s the world we live in. Going faster and faster, every minute, such that no amount of speed is enough.

But what about quality? Does concentration suffer? Is it even feasible to get work done when we are constantly running? Even if we aren’t running physically, our minds are running non-stop! Here’s a super representation of the same thing… Enjoy!

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A post shared by Daniel LaBelle (@daniellabelle1)

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The last few days when I’ve sat for my morning meditation, I’ve meditated on only one thing. My office work.

No gods, no deities, no spiritual stuff, no religious stuff, nothing else. Only work.

It’s almost frustrating! I close my eyes, and instead of silence, I see various tasks I need to complete, various potential outcomes of several different assignments, projections into the future of what may be or may not be, bonuses or the lack thereof, promotions or the lack thereof, various nasty things that colleagues and bosses may say, and on and on it goes.

My mind is so noisy that any outside sound is completely drowned out. It shows me how consumed I am by my office work, that I’m unable to set aside 15 minutes a day to think of anything but that!

On the flip side, I console myself that at least I can concentrate on “something”, even if it’s not the right thing to concentrate on for now. Slow and steady….hopefully!

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There’s a very cool Korean Netflix series called Vincenzo. It’s definitely an odd name for K-drama, but when you realize it’s about an Italian-Korean mafia consigliere who returns to Seoul for some work, then it begins to make some sense. It’s super funny, and has a very good feel good factor to it. This isn’t a show review though!

The protagonist at one point realizes that there is too much anger still locked up inside him. He consults a monk for advice, and asks him, “Sir, I’m going to move back to Italy, or maybe even to an island in the middle of nowhere. Do you think my anger will go away?”

To which the monk replies profoundly, “Son, your anger is not on an island, but in your mind. If you can fight your anger, then you can be peaceful anywhere. If you can’t, then no place will help you!”

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The English word ‘restless’ always has a profound impact on me. It’s like I begin to feel restless just by reading the word. But it became even worse when I found out that the word ‘restive’, although sounding much more peaceful and rested, also means restless only! What a curious language!

Anyway, I came across a very nice set of lines by Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh on restlessness.

From time to time you may become restless, and the restlessness will not go away. At such times, just sit quietly follow your breathing, smile a half-smile, and shine your awareness on the restlessness. Don't judge it or try to destroy it, because this restlessness is you yourself. It is born, has some period of existence, and dies away quite naturally. Don't try too hard to make it disappear. Just illuminate it. You will see that little by little it will change, merging, becoming connected, with you, the observer: Any psychological state which you subject to this illumination will eventually soften and acquire the same nature as the observing mind.

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In Vedic/Hindu spirituality, intuition is known as the directly perceiving faculty of the soul, and it is a powerful tool that allows us to know the truth about everything without relying on sensory experience or reason.

According to Paramhansa Yogananda, the highest form of intuition – true intuition – is developed through regular meditation and practice. Here’s some guidelines for how to do this:

Meditating regularly every morning and before going to bed at night. Sitting quietly and feeling a calm peace.

After meditating, sitting still for a long time, enjoying inner peace.

Meditating until the breath becomes calm. Then concentrating simultaneously at the point between the eyebrows and the heart, and asking God to direct our intuition so that we know what to do.

It is said, that when our intuition is fully developed, we will stand firm in our knowledge and convictions, no matter what challenges may arise. By developing our intuition through meditation, we can come closer to the divine and experience a deeper connection to the world around us.

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Does the ability to think clearly come with more knowledge and learning?

It might certainly seem logical. The more we know, the better information we will have for making decisions.

But apparently it’s not so easy. Learning and knowledge often brings ego, which can act as a barrier to clear thinking.

What is important is objectivity. The example of a baby in the arms of an old wrinkly skinned man is a case in point. The baby snuggles with the man no matter the color or quality of his skin, or his age, or his smell or anything else for that matter. All it cares about, is the love the man showers onto the baby, and the baby simply reciprocates. Zero prejudice.

Our past experiences and prejudices often color our thinking. So instead of responding to the reality of a situation, we end up responding to the prejudices and preconceptions instead.

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Ever seen some of those insane NatGeo or similar deep-ocean documentaries? The dark blue waters and the total silence… it’s almost eerie.

But there’s actually a crazy amount of action going on there. So many fish and amphibians and crustaceans and other creatures are alive and buzzing.

And then imagine the torrential amounts of water that flows into the ocean, every day, every hour, every minute, every second. From rivers, from melting ice, from rain, and other sources too perhaps.

But through all this commotion, the deep ocean is always calm and placid. Exactly like how we would be, once we’ve attained that Blissful State. Once the Brahman has been experienced, none of the piddly matters of today will ever affect that deep calm ocean.

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Having a traveling job is awesome. You get to see so many places, live in nice hotels, and enjoy diverse cuisines. Except, this is the outsider view. Ask anyone working like this, living half their lives on a flight or hotel and they would tell you how much they would rather be in a non-traveling job coming home to family each night. Ask anyone doing a desk job, and they’d be yearning to travel to various countries, always jet setting and globe trotting.

Working in a startup is really amazing. Freedom to choose your own work, style of work, location of work – you name it. But ask someone in a startup and they’d probably like the stability offered by a role in an established company. Ask someone in an established company though, and they’d be yearning for working at a startup.

Ask someone living in a city, and they’d hate it and want to “go live peacefully in the outdoors”. But ask the rural folk, and they’d love to be in the city to “earn more and live better”.

You can see where these comparisons are going. No place is perfect, except if our mind thinks it is.

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This title is the crux of spirituality. Really.

All is well. And all will be well. Whether something is good or bad is decided by the mind. Our minds are very poor predictors of what is to come – and that is why we can never stay happy, even if we achieve exactly or more than what we want.

When we let every minor or major problem in our lives derail our happiness, we get more and more irritated, angry, frustrated, jealous, disappointed… which then leads to further worry.

Why do we worry? Because, my Guru says, we are living in the past or the future, not in the present moment. What is the fix? To simply accept things the way they are, to enjoy the moment, and to not worry about what was or will be. Easier said than done?

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Here are three hard hitting lines I came across in a podcast.

“Would you let someone to come into your house and trash it?”

“No right?”

“Then why are we letting people come into our minds and trash it?”

The moment we feel weak or sad or angry simply because of what someone else told us, we have let them into our minds to trash it.

Is that what we want?

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We all get stressed sometimes. It’s natural. And then we read up on how to reduce this stress. And nice books will tell you that you should not worry about the future. That you should only live in the present.

This is absolutely perfect advice of course. But how to follow this?

Here’s a method I came across. It’s called the 5-4-3-2-1 technique. And it is really simple. If followed properly, it can quickly yank us right back into the present. How to do this?

5. Acknowledge 5 things you can see around you.

4. Acknowledge 4 things that you can touch around you.

3. Acknowledge 3 things that you can hear around you.

2. Acknowledge 2 things that you can smell around you.

1. Acknowledge 1 thing that you can taste around you.

That’s all there is to the 5-4-3-2-1 technique, but it works, and your mind should be less stressed already!

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It’s interesting how quickly we humans adapt.

Some months ago, we had the opportunity to stay a short while in a 3 BHK, one with 3 toilets. Of course that is very comfortable for typical Indian standards. Felt good.

Then we traveled, and spent a while in a place with a toilet that was separate and outside the room. A couple of days, and we got comfortably used to that as well.

And then we spent some time in a place with just one loo, but attached to the room. A damn cool upgrade as it were. And very comfortable.

And then back to base with 2 loos.

What did I learn as a nomadic loorist (loo+tourist, but you got that already)? That the body adjusts really fast to any change – almost momentarily. But the mind? Oh that’s a toughie!

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