Practice and theory

[Guest guest]

"An ounce of practice is better than tons of theory. Practice Yoga,

Religion and Philosophy in daily life and attain Self-realization."

 

http://www.sivananda.org/teachings/lifestyle/sadtat.htm

 

 

Amazing how all the Masters have repeated this adage again and again

and again.

 

I have always been quite bewildered at the state of negativity in the

world, and the increase in so called "scholars" who teach, preach,

win awards, are put on a pedetal, produce tons of books, incredible

websites and have wondered if I'm missing some point here about the

role of "walking the talk" of spirituality. Certainly, the

availability of information is wonderful, but one would expect that

if so many people lived the talk they put out, what an incredible

world this would be.

 

So what stops sadhaks from doing so? What are the obstacles?

 

(As I write it I realize this question takes me back to my New Year

question!)

 

_/\_ Tat twam asi

 

Uma

[Guest guest]

Dear Uma,

Namaste _/\_

 

Your question is not an easy one...

you see is easier to talk than to act,takes much guts to make changes

not only in oneself but in the surroundings,to walk the talk one must

leave the COMFORT ZONE and act,be what we talk,

this brings many tapasya,sacrifices,even puting life in danger,giving

up so many things.

great Acharias have shown us the path,and the formula... but is not

easy,

not that can't be done either,we just need to make our goal and be

sure we are ready to act.

in the mean time ,I like a dog just bow,bow,talk talk,

yours in love of God

tulsi

[Guest guest]

All of us whether spiritual or not are Conscious of this false Self,

and are consiocusly or unconsciously trying to attain the state of

Perfection. The Self is the only thing that is Immaculate and

Perfect. All else has at least some degree of imperfection in it, for

it has a tinge of Maya in it. perfection alone gives balance and

harmony. In order to achieve that immaculate state, we strive day in

and day out.

 

Most worldly people think that by aiming for high goals, and striving

to achieve the goal, results in attaining that perfect state. They

thus constantly are engaged in fulfilling their goals. After

attaining what they thought was perfect, they realise that they now

have a different set of goals, to be achieved, and this goes on an

on. With time they slowly realise that perfection is not attainable

by fulfilling their dreams, and they try to venture into new areas to

achieve that state of perfection. Slowly they find out that

spirituality / religion has the answer for that state.

 

They then take an interest into spirituality, and start reading the

scriptures, philosophy etc. The Self is so immaculate and perfect

that even mere reading about it, confers a sense of 'perfection' to

the reader. This sense of 'perfection' that the reader achieves is so

different from the perfection he thought he might attain thro'

pursuit of worldly goals. He then is sure that this is the way to

perfection, and is happy that he at last is on the right path.

 

He now has knowledge that the people around him don't have. For most

common people, religion is confined to visiting temples and chanting

slokas for material gains. They have no idea of the 'Self' or

perfection. Contrarily he now knows the path to perfection which most

people don't even know exists.

 

After finding the path to perfection, he then tries to tread on the

path. He starts the process of sadhna, and finds the path tough. It

requires a lot of dogged tenacity, determination, perseverance, faith

and fortitute to make changes in one's life so as to tread on the

path. These changes aren't easy to accomodate. One may meet with many

failures , but one has to continue.

 

Contrarily to preach, you don't need any of the above mentioned

qualities viz dogged tenacity, determination, etc. People preach only

to satisfy their own personal self. The ego hurt thro failures finds

solace in preaching unknown to themselves. It gives a sense of power

and superiority to the preacher.

 

These people preach only to serve their personal selves and not

humanity.

 

To overcome such obstacles, we need to surrender to the 'Guru' who is

immaculate, and all else He'll take care. When we board a train, we

tell the gaurd to wake us up when our destination arrives. On

informing the gaurd, we go to sleep, 'cos we trust that the gaurd

will wake us up on the arrival of our destination. If only we have at

least half the trust that we have towards the gaurd towards our Guru,

our spiritual life will be much better.

 

Hari Aum !!!

[Guest guest]

Thank you svcs and Tulsi for picking up on this thread.

 

So we realize that the path is hard and arduous, and we also realize

that we can take the guidance of a Guru to keep us on the path. And

we keep talking or "preaching" so that maybe one day the

preacher/singer merges into the preaching.

 

But what is it that makes it hard? And what is it that makes it

difficult for sadhaks with positive energy to unite their energies in

creating a larger, more powerful force? Here are some of my thoughts.

 

One is the fear factor. The fear that if we give up the known methods

of control and other expressions of emotions, that we may fail.

However, it is only the ego that fears, and since we have no choice

but to work within the ego, the demon of fear has to be overcome.

Perhaps if we realize that FEAR really stands for FALSE EVIDENCE

ABOUT REALITY, and do a reality check everytime it puts an obstacle

in front, we can begin to make some changes. Yes, Guru can help by

constantly goading us on and providing encouragement, but how many

True and/or living Gurus are there for each sadhak to contact? A part

of this role of encouragement and suppport can be played by

satsanghs, but we need to participate in such activities.

 

Another factor may be a lack of confidence that perhaps these are

only good spiritual truths but not practical ones. How many times

have we heard, "Yes, this is true but real life is different!" Is the

information about the practical applications of the spiritual laws

easily available? As in any field one needs to be taught with

practical applications, so that a student understands not only the

thinking process, but the "how to" of the principles and through the

experiencing of the applications. Personally I haven't found many

teachers who focus on that aspect of the teachings, except Western

teachers of Indian thought.

 

Another factor that possibly plays a role is that our system of

thought focuses so much on personal goals and enlightenment, that the

focus is only one's own self, and one's own journey. This lays the

journey open for actions to be selfish, and self-less-ness remains

only a goal. It is only in interaction with another that one's ego

comes into play - one needs an-other for there to be a "you"

and "I"; "yours" and "mine". With the focus being entirely on the

self and most practices being individual centered, it is possible

that it has led to sadhaks becoming self-centered, instead of Self-

centered, and their role in the larger community gets ignored. I can

sit in my room, virtual or otherwise, and work on my enlightenment,

but it will have no effect on any ego-centered issues if there is no

interaction with others.

 

Another factor may be the misunderstanding of terms like Right

Action, selflessness, unconditional love, compassion etc. While we

take our inspiration from the texts, how does it really translate

into our real lives? Does unconditional love or "being spiritual"

mean supporting all actions even if they are obviously hurtful to

someone else? Does compassion mean being an enabler of negative

actions? Does taking a stand on issues mean one is being non-

spiritual? Or is it a way to escape making a choice and taking a

stand?

 

Finally the factor that comes to my mind immediately is that of the

basic tenet of Karma. Does the sadhak's belief, that everything is

Karmic and beyond the control of anyone other than the Universal

Principle, lead him/her to believe that they have no role to play? If

that is true, is their abstaining from action not a choice itself?

 

Interesting questions that I hope triggers some thought for all. I

sincerely hope to hear from everyone about what you think.

 

You may ask why think at all? Perhaps if we collectively share our

thoughts, we may trigger important changes in each other's journey.

 

Isn't that the purpose of a satsangh?

 

_/\_ Tat twam asi

 

Uma

____________

, s_v_c_s <no_reply> wrote:

> After finding the path to perfection, he then tries to tread on the

> path. He starts the process of sadhna, and finds the path

tough. .......

 

> Contrarily to preach, you don't need any of the above mentioned

> qualities viz dogged tenacity, determination, etc. People preach

>only to satisfy their own personal self. The ego hurt thro failures

>finds solace in preaching unknown to themselves. It gives a sense of

>power and superiority to the preacher.

[Guest guest]

>> While we take our inspiration from the texts, how does it really

translate into our real lives? Does unconditional love or "being

spiritual" mean supporting all actions even if they are obviously

hurtful to someone else? Does compassion mean being an enabler of

negative actions? Does taking a stand on issues mean one is being non-

spiritual? Or is it a way to escape making a choice and taking a

stand? <<

 

As we go higher up in sadhna, and try to see the 'Divine' in

everyone / everything, these kind of questions arise in us. If

everyone is God, then should we accept all their hurtful / evil

actions ?

 

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa gave a beautiful elucidation with the help of

a story. There was once a Guru who lived in the forest, and he taught

the principles of Advaita to his disciples. The dicsiples were good

and earnest disciples, and learnt the lessons at the feet of their

master reverentially. As they advanced to the higher principles of

Advaita, the Guru said, that the 'Divine' resides in everyone.

Everything that you see around you has the 'Divine' in it. Even the

stones , the sky, the wind, the good, the evil, everything is a

manifestation of the Divine.

 

The disciples too learnt sincerely, and were trying to apply the

principles of Advaita into real life. One of the disciples started

seeing God in everything / everyone around him. One day he was

walking through the streets of the village. Suddenly he heard an

uproar, and saw people running hither and thither. He watched

closely, and found a mad elephant approaching him at a distance. All

the people around him,were running for shelter and shouted to him to

get out of the way of the elephant. The mahut (elephant care taker)

was running behind the elephant to try to control it, and was

screaming at the peopple to get out of the way of the elephant. The

mahut saw that this disciple was not running away and screamed at him

to run away. But the disciple thought to himself, "If God is in

everything, then God is in this mad elephant too. Why should I run

away from this manifestation of God,?"

 

Thinking thus to himself, he just stood there, and waited for the

elephant. The mad elephant approached him, caught him by the trunk,

and threw him mercilessly. The disciple was badly injured and was

taken to the ashram of his Guru.

 

When the disciple was feeling better, the guru enquired as to why he

didn't run away from the elephant. The disciple informed the guru of

his thoughts and explained that he did'nt want to run away from the

elephant- God.

 

The Guru then replied, 'If you saw God in all Beings, then why did

you not listen to the mahut - God?"

 

Similarly, we apply the principles of Advaita only partially, before

comprehending the full meaning, and thus end up in failures. The

Divine is in everyone, does NOT mean that we should treat everyone

the same way. We should treat each person according to their nature.

For eg. we can't be frank and friendly to strangers. If someone is a

known mischief maker then obviously we need to act with caution when

dealing with that person. However that does not mean we should hate

or develop any negative emotions towards that person.

 

This can be better understood with the following illustration.

Water makes things wet. Fire burns down whatever is put into it.

Children play firecrackers. We use fire to cook food. Though we use

fire in the house everyday, we need to exercise caution while dealing

with fire, lest it may burn down our house. The reason we exercise

caution is because that is the nature of fire, i.e to burn down

things. Just b'cos we are exercising caution does not mean that we

hate fire or have some other kind of negative emotion towards it like

anger, jealousy, etc.

 

We treat water and fire differently owing to their different nature.

However, all the while, what we feel towards the 2 elements is the

same. We neither hate fire nor love water.

 

Similarly, there may be notorious people in this earth, and we may

have to deal with them in the offices, or home or other places. We

definitely need to exercise caution while dealing with those

nefarious people, but that does not mean we should hate them or

harness other kind sof negative emotions towards them. If a person is

very simple and frank, we can be free with that person, if the person

is notorious, we need to be careful. That alone is the difference in

dealing with people, just like how we deal differently with water and

fire owing to the difference in their nature. But what we feel

towards all kinds of people should be the same, as it is the same

Divine manifested in all.

 

Hari Aum !!!

[Guest guest]

Namaskar,

 

Uma you have a valid question, when you ask:

 

"But what is it that makes it hard? And what is it that makes it

difficult for sadhaks with positive energy to unite their energies

in

creating a larger, more powerful force? ".

The factors you have mentioned are true, I would like to add one

more, as rightly said in this old story :

 

There is a very old and sweet story in the Mahabharata. The four

Pandava brothers were living deep in a forest. One day they lost

their way; it was afternoon and they could not find water anywhere.

One of the brothers went in search of water and he came across a

lake, but as he bent down to take the water from the lake a voice

said, "Stop! You cannot take the water till you answer my question."

I t was a yaksha, a spirit, who possessed the lake.

"What is your question?" asked the Pandava.

 

The yaksha said, "If you don't answer the question or if you give

the wrong answer then you will die immediately. But if the answer is

correct then you will get water as well as innumerable presents from

me." The question was: What is the greatest truth of man's life? But

the answer – whatever the answer was – was not correct, so the first

brother fell down and died.

 

One by one all the four brother fell down for water and died. In the

end Yudhishthira followed them wondering what had happened to them

all. He found all the four dead.

 

Then the yaksha called out, "Be careful! First answer my question,

otherwise you will also die like them. You can take water only on

one condition – that your answer has to be correct, because my

salvation depends on that reply. I will be free the moment I get the

correct reply; the bondage of my being a yaksha will break. The

question is: What is the greatest truth of man's life?"

 

Yudhishthira said, "The greatest truth is that man doesn't learn

from his experiences."

 

The yaksha got free of the curse. All the four brothers came back to

life – the yaksha was so happy to be free that he brought all four

of them alive again.

 

For ages so many must have asked the same question " why sadhaks

with positive energy do not unite their energies in creating a

larger, more powerful force" let us continue thinking over it.

 

Om Shanti

 

Story Source:http://www.osho.com

 

 

 

, "Tatwamasi <tatwamasi>"

<tatwamasi> wrote:

>

> Thank you svcs and Tulsi for picking up on this thread.

>

>>