Purpose and Aim

Well first of all, I have to give a warning to my readers, this post is going to sound rather deflated. I know that some people may think that my ‘encore’ should be positive and awe inspiring, but I will say this, my posts has never been about that. Even if some of them are, I assure that was not my aim, it may have been a by-product of a larger motive. My blogs and posts have always dealt with the apparent unnoticed reality. Yea, I think that’s the best way to describe the topic of my blogs, this blog is about the apparent unnoticed reality. It is apparent isnt it? i mean what is reality, people through out the ages have tried to figure out what the hell is real and not, and out of all the millions of people probably a handful of them have figured it out…I’m pretty sure I’ am not any of them. Sorry to disappoint you. Now lets begin.

What is our purpose in life? If this question spontaneously appeared in the mind of a sprinter running to get the Olympics gold medal that sprinter will stop and get a blank look on his face.

I have thought about this and I have to say that our purpose in this life is nothing more or less than the purpose of the sand or of a rock. What is the purpose of sand, or a rock, why do they exist? And why should we think that we have a bigger purpose in this life? Isn’t it a bit egoistic of us?

What are we here for? Do we exist for the sake of existing? I think that’s pretty much it. I think we pretty much exist for the sake of existing, nothing more. I know some people say I aim to be a pilot, or a doctor someday. I wont argue with that statement, aim are man made. But to say that my purpose in this life is to be a doctor or to be a pilot, that’s just ridiculous…although it may sound very inspiring, but seriously…gimme a break okay?

If a chicken say its purpose in this life is to be a doctor, that will sound ridiculous..just as ridiculous as a human being to say that his/her purpose is to be a doctor. The only reason why it doesn’t sound insane for a human being to say so, is because we live in this really fucked up illusion that we are somehow separate from nature, that we are above it all…that GOD MADE US FOR A HIGHER PURPOSE!

Its insane. You may have aim in life, but purpose…you have no purpose. we are already conditioned since we were born that there is a beginning a road and an end, truth is there is not beginning and no end, there is only here and now, and that’s all. Its formless, shapeless, timeless. I have heard people say that those who has no purpose are lost. I say the people who has no purpose are the ones that are more meditative, they don’t have to go anywhere, they don’t care what time it is, they are more able to be in touch with nature. People who has a ‘purpose’ however, are totally not in touch with nature, they are busy, living their life’s ‘purpose’, always running here and there.

What these people don’t realize is that what they call ‘purpose’ is actually desire, they are driven by desire. For those people, I can assure you, if they find out what is the real purpose…boy are they going to be disappointed.

On Beliefs and Facts

The difference between a belief and a fact is similar to the difference between a chicken and an egg. An egg will have to go through a radical transformation and experience (in this case hatching) to turn into a chicken. As long as it is an egg, the idea of it actually containing a chick is just a belief.

A lot of people believe in God, but if you ask them if they are ready to accept God as a fact, then I think they will start to think twice. Similar with miracles, people believe in miracles, but are they ready to accept miracles as a fact. I think not. Miracles are almost the opposite of facts. Rocks, stones, woods, water..those are facts, we don’t stare in awe at facts. UFO’s landing, Pigs flying, those are miracles, which until now we have not seen. But we do believe that UFOs have landed..it is still a belief.

Now let us apply this rule to spiritual experience. One should only stick to a spiritual believe if one feels that it can lead him/her to an experience that can transform him/her, that can bring him/her first hand experience of the truth within. If not then I don’t think it is necessary to continue praying incessantly on Sunday mornings. Most people carry on with their stale beliefs because they are obligated, they fear that it might cause a stress in the relationship among their family members.

The rule of thumb is, if your spiritual beliefs has not led you anywhere, has not given you any glimpse of truth, any spiritual experience, then it is time to let go and experiment. Never ever be afraid of experimenting. Whenever you have a belief, do not hesitate to challenge it. If scientists in this world were to accept their beliefs blindly without actually experimenting it and questioning it and challenging it, we would not be so technically advanced as we are now.

When the Buddha was to discover Vipassana meditation technique, he believed that observing ones own breath and bodily sensations without reacting to it, one can obtain a peace of mind. This was his belief. He challenged it and tried it out, and it worked! And now it is a proven fact that Vipassana Meditation does indeed eradicate mental impurities and mental suffering! This would not have been so if Buddha did not challenge his beliefs! I myself have challenged it during my first course, and I have come to accept it as a fact.

This is not to say that this is the ultimate fact, no. this is the fact for me. Different people have different beliefs and therefore different facts. If you are one who believes in the existence of God, then question yourself. How long have you been lighting incense sticks in front of a statue and prayed? Has it elevated you, spiritually speaking? Has it given you bliss? If no, then abandon it. If yes then carry on with what you are doing.

Do not be afraid of what other people say, do not be afraid of being taken as a hypocrite. A lot of people are afraid of being considered a hypocrite because one day they say something and the next day they will say something totally opposite. But let me ask you this, can you walk only while using your left leg? No, you cannot. You need both legs. Same thing here. If you are equally open with one aspect and whatever the opposite of the particular aspect is, only then will you be able to move forward.

As for miracles, think of it this way: all facts are miracles.

Unlimited Definition of the Indefinable Me.

The trickiest part of being spiritual is when you claim yourself to be spiritual, the moment you make such claims you have the potential to be like the Australian priest who sexually abused a child recently. This may sound outrageous, but read on if you will.

One of the main teachings of spirituality is not to be spiritual, but to be human. This is very hard to get, confusing even. One of the main attractive and rather forgotten trait of what it means to be a human being is that you cannot be defined, I got this idea from a rather spiritual activity called meditation. Every time I meditate I start getting the idea that I am more than what I define myself to be, I am not spiritual, I am not a brother, a son, a cousin, a businessman, not right, not wrong, not sane but not insane either. I am not all these things. I am the indefinable me.

I am not going to limit myself into one definition; the people who limit themselves into one definition are the ones who will have to most sufferings the most pangs of guilt and outrage. Why? Because these are people who have limited their own space, they have set their own rules and regulations, rules and regulations which they are not sure they can keep up, and if they break one of the rules, they become miserable, unhappy, frustrated, like that oz priest. A human being is like a puddle on the street after a rainy day, formless, it doesn’t make sense and yet it is just right, that puddle just seems right to be on that spot. How can you define a human being, one day he is reading one of the most intense books ever, next day you find him playing a video game like a bum, how would define him? As a bum? Or an intellectual? One day a priest is praying in a church next day he is sexually abusing a 9 year old? Is he righteous or a sex maniac?

Consider that Australian priest who sexually abused a child, it became worldwide news, and he wasn’t the first priest either. Do no obligate yourself to taking a vow of celibacy, do not obligate yourself to being a vegetarian, do it when you are ready, when you feel it is right. That priest was frustrated by the limits that he has trapped himself in and of course people were shocked by his inhuman actions. Suppressing something natural is wrong, nature should not be repressed, it should be accepted, observed, understood, respected, anything but suppressing or repressing for that matter.

The Buddha was the highest spiritual being that this earth has ever produced, and yet, he never claimed himself to being a spiritual person, never took himself highly, in fact, the idea of one of the 5 moral precepts that he laid down to his students, the precept that said there should not be killing of any living things, was given to him by a person who has spent his whole life trying to assassinate The Buddha!(for more details on this story, try reading about the Buddha) other “righteous” sages and priest would have gotten angry and the killer and cursed at him. The Buddha however, respected and acknowledge the killer, he didn’t see him as a killer, but as another human being.

So the only advice I have for you readers I have is “do not ever not allow yourself to do anything in life.”

To Forgive and be Forgetful

No matter how hard you try, you will never be able to forget a misdeed that someone has done to you in the past, even an enlightened monk remembers it. We cannot erase our memory of the deeds they did to us, it is impossible. We even have memories from our past lives, which most of us cannot excess (as yet). So no we cannot forget.

We shouldn’t forget either, in this case, to forgive would be to deny then, to be living in a state of denial. It is of course, every one’s right to choose whether he/she wants to continue further relations with the person who is at fault.

To forgive does not mean to forget. To forgive means to be at peace with whatever fault was done unto you, and to be at peace with the person, and last but not least for be at peace with the bitter memory. Forgiving is an internal process of acceptance, not an outer process of a formal kind gesture. Forgiveness, therefore, is an art of meditation.

You do not have to go to the person and say ‘I forgive you.’ Because like Oscar De Wilde once said ‘always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much.’ In doing so you might end up causing more complications, because first of all, there is a good possibility the person does not feel at fault, and no one comes up to a person saying things like that without a tinge of conceit in their ego.

Some of you might ask: well why shouldn’t we forget?

Well, when you have learnt experientially that fire burns when you touch it, would you forget it? No, but would you hold grudge against it? No again. It is the same deal. Everything is alive in this world, even a rock. Everything in this world, from a pebble to a human being has consciousness. Therefore forgive the person, just the same way you forgive the fire, so to speak. Why was it so easy for you to forgive the fire? Because you know, you are convinced that the fire didn’t know that it was harming you, the same attitude you should use with people. This is what Jesus meant when he said, ‘Forgive them Father, for they know not what they have done.’

Conscious Intentions

No living thing, animals or human being can ever live beyond their conscious level. A lion kills its prey by using its claws and teeth and strength, because that is the only way it knows how to kill, if it knows better it would probably use a shotgun and save some energy.

Similarly it is with us human beings, a lot of times we get frustrated by the way other people are treating us and putting us through, and we cannot help but ask why is he/she doing this? Why can’t he/she be like that nice lady/man that lives next door? Why can’t he/she be more civilized?

He/she can’t be like any other, because he/she is not any other! Everyone of us have very different level of consciousness. In the bible, when Jesus was being tortured to death he said, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.” This is exactly what Jesus is teaching us, that we are not fully conscious of ourselves, the people who tortured Jesus, did what they thought was good for them and the people, although from our point of view we thought they were bad, because obviously we have become more evolved consciously, or have we? Because something tells me, if Jesus reappeared as Jesus himself on this planet, the church would most likely be the first to punish him for blasphemy.

Hitler also didn’t think what he did was bad, he did what he thought was good for his people the Aryans. No body would do anything that they think is bad. Unfortunately bad and good is a very relative term.

This is why we see parents hitting their children telling them to stop crying and suppressing their emotions. The parents are doing what they think is best for their children, although we all know that is not the best for the child, but most of us know what is best only theoretically, but how sure are we that we won’t treat the same child the same way if we were being put in the same situation? We have to be able to raise our conscious level if we want to live well and live wisely. Your intentions don’t mean a thing if your conscious level is low. Your intentions may be as pure as Jesus’s but your conscious level is as low as Hitler’s, and if your act from that conscious level, you are sure to bring misery with your good intentions.
Remember, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

The following passages are taken from the book Meetings With Remarkable People by Osho, I hope it will serve its purpose by making sense of the existence of enlightened beings such as Jesus, Buddha and Krishna which has been questioned up to no end through out history; a history that is just filled with people who believed in the existence of people like Hitler, Stalin, Genghis Khan more than these wonderful personages:

Man can live in two ways: one is in time, one is beyond time. History is the name of the life that we live in time; it leaves marks in the temporal. But there is also a life which we live beyond time-it leaves no marks anywhere. It is not just an accident that existence of Jesus is doubtful; so it the existence of Krishna, Lao Tzu and Zarathustra. Why is their existence doubtful? They have not really left mark in time. They lived a life of interiority, the lived in themselves. Their life had no visible, tangible impact, but they transformed human consciousness. They lived in consciousness and they impressed human consciousness. But history takes no note of them. History takes not of Adolf Hitler, Genghis Khan, Tamburlaine; history takes not of people who live in time and leave marks on the sands of time. But people like Buddha, Christ, almost pass from existence as if they have not passed at all. That’s what I mean by going beyond history. Don’t live in events: live in awareness.

-Osho

How to Help your Baby Attain Enlightenment

It was on a particular night 20-30 years ago in Germany, when a heavily depressed man decided to commit suicide and end his life all the while saying, “I CANT LIVE WITH MYSELF!” repeatedly. When all of a sudden a voice arose in him asking, “Who is this Self that I cant live without? Is this Self me? I don’t think so, is my work, my troubles and problems me? I don’t think so. If it is not me then who am I? ah! I know it, I am the witness, the awareness behind all this. I am!”

And with that, instead of killing himself, it was his ego that got dissolved, it was his ego that got killed, he dis-identified himself with his ego (please note that I don’t mean to say that everyone who asks him/herself this question will attain enlightenment)

Today we know this man to be one of the greatest and most respected spiritual teacher of our time, he has written 2 books which became bestsellers, and he is currently collaborating with Oprah Winfrey in making online spiritual class that can be watched for free or which can be downloaded or streamed via Oprah’s official website, a feat that has never been done before in the spiritual department, it is being viewed by millions and millions of people from around the globe, all the while awakening them to who they truly are. I’ am sure you have guessed who he is by now; he is none other than Eckhart Tolle.

In this post I would like to share with you something rather interesting that I grasped from one of his A New Earth online class.

Eckhart was teaching parents on how to raise awareness of the present moment and to avoid their children from identifying with forms and objects around them, and to teach them from the beginning how to see things as they are and not to identify things with labels that we give them.

The problem with most of us is that we cannot see things as they are, we are too attached with the labels, the moment we see a tree or a bird, our mind gives it a name, and adds a comment to it (good comment or bad comment does not matter, comment is comment), and instead of seeing the tree, the bird as they truly are, which is life, which is energy, which is that, we are too engrossed with the labels and the thoughts.

I invite you to take a walk in the garden and start observing nature, look at the trees and birds, but do not label them, or make comments about them in your mind, just don’t think anything about it, but just look, observe it. You will notice how alive and radiant it is, and by observing its radiance, you will feel alive as well, because you and whatever it is you are looking at is part of one whole being.

Now you, an adult may understand what I am saying, but you can’t expect a small child to understand at all, and it is very important for a human being to understand that things are not the label that you give them from a very early age, so their mind won’t be conditioned into labeling things and identify with them.

Now the question arise how to teach a child this thing, and this is where Eckhart Tolle shows why he is what he is. When he was asked this question he said that whenever your curious little child asks you “mom/dad, what is that thing over there?”

Instead of saying “oh, it’s a bird, sweetie.” You should say “oh, that is called a bird.”

This makes a whole lot of difference, if you answer it like the latter you are implying that what the child is looking at is not a bird, but something that is called a bird in this beautiful planet of ours! What it is cannot be defined; it can only be experienced or witnessed. The moment you consider that thing to be the label that you give it, you are blocking life to yourself, you are blocking the radiance that life has to offer you, through what ever it is that you are observing, because your mind is just making so much noise, that you can’t experience the stillness where life resides in all its glory and might.

Part of what it means to be enlightened is to be able to see things as they really are, to be able to see things through the eyes of a baby, for whom everything in this world is so vibrant, so new, and so alive. To dis-identify the labels you give to the things that you see. I don’t mean that you should not label things, you should, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to address things, but do not identify those things with the label. If you can do that, then you shall witness and experience the glory of this universe first hand! I wish you good luck in your endeavor.