Month: December 2008

Igniting the Flame of Self-Awareness

I am a big fan of J.Krishnamurti. I got this in my email today and I think it can’t be any simpler than this. We spend hours watching Tv, movies etc, I think it’s totally possible in this world to follow a simple method just like this and become self-aware. I love JK.

“If you find it difficult to be aware, then experiment with writing down every thought and feeling that arises throughout the day; write down your reactions of jealousy, envy, vanity, sensuality, the intentions behind your words, and so on.

Spend some time before breakfast in writing them down – which may necessitate going to bed earlier and putting aside some social affair. If you write these things down whenever you can, and in the evening before sleeping look over all that you have written during the day, study and examine it without judgment, without condemnation, you will begin to discover the hidden causes of your thoughts and feelings, desires and words….

Now, the important thing in this is to study with free intelligence what you have written down, and in studying it you will become aware of your own state. In the flame of self-awareness, of self-knowledge, the causes of conflict are discovered and consumed. You should continue to write down your thoughts and feelings, intentions and reactions, not once or twice, but for a considerable number of days until you are able to be aware of them instantly….

Meditation is not only constant self-awareness, but constant abandonment of the self. Out of right thinking there is meditation, from which there comes the tranquility of wisdom; and in that serenity the highest is realized.

Writing down what one thinks and feels, one’s desires and reactions, brings about an inward awareness, the cooperation of the unconscious with the conscious, and this in turn leads to integration and understanding.”

The Book of Life – December 25

Growing Roots

If I may steal Mark Twain’s quote “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it”, I would like to say that same thing applies to “Depression” that we are going through too. Everyone I talk to, believe me that just very few people in this cold winter – at some level depressed or saddened or feeling hurt about something. It could be that their credit card is maxed out, it could be that they are not getting new jobs etc. Even my friends in India wonder how I am doing when the market is so down.

I am not closing my eyes to reality – I know we are in recession (now that it is official) but I am baffled by how much people get stuck with something like this. We as humans have immense potential within us – we survived all these years. We are the best survival machine when it comes to Darwinism. One credit card declined can’t put a frown upon our faces forever. We are better than this.

I do believe that this is a chance to look at ourselves deeply. Not just at our bank balances, but deep within our psyches. It’s time to regurgigate our beliefs, thinking and how we deal with this so called ‘reality’. It’s time to hibernate. It’s time to get lean with all the things in our lives. It a time to test how much are we slaves to our senses.

Recently I got an email which talked about how a tree grows. When a tree grows taller, even before it grows taller – the first thing it does is to spread it’s roots deeper. Otherwise the height won’t be stable and it will fall. I think similarly, this depression time is the time for us to grow our roots deeper. It’s the time to make our bases stronger and then there would be a time for us to grow taller.

These are the times that bring out the best in us. These are the times that make us think creatively. The theory already exists in Business – it’s called “Theory of Constraints“. Just treat it as a constraint and see how your mind cooks up new solutions. I keep wondering “What is that life demands from me?” in these times. I don’t have the answer yet, but I for sure know that it’s not something I have already done in the past.

Peace to all the people who are on this path of transformation.