Sunday, April 27, 2008

From Autopilot to Mindful Awareness



Every day, most of us live our lives on autopilot.

We go through our routines without any conscious thoughts or awareness of what we are doing at that particular moment. Our minds would usually be somewhere else, be it in the past or the future. But mostly never on the present.

As such, we are living in a world of non-awareness. We wake up in the morning, brush our teeth and shower while planning what we will do for the day. We dress thinking about the meeting that we will have at the office. We eat breakfast with our children quickly to get out of the door so that we will not be late for work. We commute to work with our minds wandering somewhere else. And that happens throughout the whole day until you go to sleep. Being on autopilot is like being a zombie - your mind is not really there with your body.

STOP!!

By living on autopilot, we misses the most important moments - the Present. We deprive ourselves of the magical moments of the Present. We do not see the beautiful colors that Mother Nature has blessed us with. We miss the beautiful songs of the birds and the transient beauty surrounding us.

And because we keep missing the Present, at the end of the day, we wondered what we have accomplished, why there is never enough hours in the day for us to do what we need to do.

So, we need to develop the awareness to live in the Present. Observe your thoughts and make sure that it does not wander aimlessly when you are doing whatever you have on hand. If you are having a shower, be aware of the cool water flowing on your skin. When you are combing your hair, feel the comb running though your hair. When you are eating your breakfast, savour the texture, the taste and the sensation of the food in your mouth.

Be Here Now.

When you do this, you will find the pleasure of really living and being alive during every moment of your life. You will find the wonder of the mundane things that you do and come away with a more indepth appreciation of what you are doing. Your relationships with the people around you, your family and friends will deepen as you are Present for all of them. Consequently, your life will be enriched with many meaningful moments and beauty.

All because you are living in the Present and the Now. Please, live an awakened life...


"The mind is incomprehensible and exceedingly subtle. It wanders wherever it desires. Therefore, let the wise watch over their minds. A well-guarded mind brings contentment."

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Being Awakened and Being Enlightened




There are people who use the terms "Being Awakened" and "Being Enlightened" interchangeably. Do the two terms mean the same thing?

No, it certainly does not.

"Being Awakened" is just one of the very initial stages of "Being Enlightened". You become "Awakened" when you realized that there is more than what you are in this life.

You know in the core of your soul that you are not defined by the physical boundaries of your life - the identity, the possessions, the people around you. You find that you are not attached to anything; you know that everything is transient, nothing last forever.

Everything dies, everything decays, everything changes. Nothing is permanent.

You increasingly know that you are not the "You" defined by your name, your title and your status in life.

You find that life is meaningless - it is more than about searching for happiness, accumulating riches and power and chasing the illusions of the "I" and the ego.

Having "Awakened", you feel more connected to the "Spirit", the "Supreme Being" or "God". You begin the search for this connection through being more mindful of who you really are and how you "fit" in the scheme of things.

Many people do this through the established religions of the world, trying to form a relationship with this "Being", "God" or however you defined It. Some people go on a spiritual quest, searching for answers by making pilgrimages to the holy places, studying under some mystic gurus or meditation.

But the Truth is always within you. The Truth is everywhere - from the trees, the flowers to all living sentient beings that exist in this world. There is no need to make any special pilgrimages - the "Buddha" is within you.

The Buddhas said "All of you are Buddhas". This is a powerful statement as it states that all of us WILL be enlightened, just that we are so deluded that we do not realize our own true buddha-nature. All of us will eventually become buddhas...

When you realize your own buddha-nature, you become a Buddha, the Enlightened One. When you are enlightened, there are no longer any boundaries or constraints. Space, time and physical limitations no longer exist to you. You can be everywhere and nowhere, in the past, present and future. You can appear in any physical form that you want. You become omnipresent, omniscient and all-powerful. You are everything and nothing.

So, being "Awakened" and being "Enlightened" is really two very different stages. Awakening is just the start of a long journey towards enlightenment.

By being "Awakened", you find that you will live a more meaningful life, knowing that this life too is transient, that you are on the road towards total enlightenment. Therefore, this knowledge gives you very hopeful purpose in your everyday life - to live life with meaning, with purpose and ultimately with love...

Friday, April 4, 2008

Seeing Eternity in the form of a Flower



Eckhart Tolle started the first chapter of his book, "A New Earth - Awakening to Your Life's Purpoase" with a very famous story about the Buddha delivering a sermon to his disciples.

When tens of thousands of the Buddha's disciples have sat down reverently to listen to His sermon, the Buddha did not speak. Instead, He just plucked a flower from a nearby flowering bush, held it in His hand, gaze at it and meditate on it. All the assembled disciples were puzzled about what the Buddha was doing.

Only one of his main disciple, Mahakasyapa, who is renowned for his intellectual abilities and wisdom, let a smile slowly formed around his mouth. The Buddha praised him for his smile.

But what does this story really mean? Why would the Buddha praised Mahakasyapa for smiling during His sermon?

The Buddha did that because Mahakasyapa was the only disciple amongst the assembly who was sufficiently advanced in his study to know what the Buddha was trying to teach all of them.

Mahakasyapa realized that the Buddha was showing him that everything is actually impermanent. By seeing the Buddha comtemplating and meditating on the flower, he realized that all forms does not last and therefore, it is useless to be attached to form. Therefore, Mahakasyapa was enlightened to the stage of non-attachement to anything - to the form of the flower, to the sound of the voice of the Buddha himself and to the material universe itself.

He also realized that even beauty is also temporary. Over time, the flower will wither, fade and decay. Therefore, he should also treat his body-form the same way - with the knowledge of impermanence. So, a healthy, beautiful and young body will eventually decay over time. Therefore, it is better not to get attached to the temporary forms and seek enlightenment by understanding the eternal being, the inherent Buddha that resides in all of us.

On another level, by meditating on the flower, the Buddha is showing the assembled monks to be present in the Now, that when you are enlightened, time does not really exist. The universe is represented everywhere and every time and yet, nowhere and no-time (beyond time).

And this is really an enlightening story that you should bring with you. Every time you see a flower, be aware that the whole universe, that eternity itself exists in that beautiful flower that you are seeing...