We all wonder what it means to live. Osho said "this very body the Buddha". Easier said then done - no wonder he had a series of discourses on the topic. To be very frank I haven't read or heard them but I always wondered what it meant.
However life is the school we all attend and there is no teacher but every day is a lesson.
It was a thought which just precipitated today. Most of us in our daily lives are going through phases which stimulate us mentally as well as physically. Mental simulation leads us to feel emotions like joy or sadness or happiness. The physical stimulus causes pain or pleasure too which is in turn interpreted by mind as good or bad. We are continuously being exposed to hundreds of such stimulations and emotions.
However the question is how does one remain sensitive enough while being able to detach from a situation or emotion. The dark side of things pull one self to lose either one of those as the easy solution. Either become involved or attached of become too insensitive.
As they say prolonged exposure to negative experiences tends to harden people like steel is hardened by Quenching. Metallurgically speaking it is a process in which steel is exposed to high temperature and then cooled quickly. The temperature difference hardens it - makes it stronger. Humans I perceive have a similar response to emotional stress - it tends to harden us. The natural process is to get involves and gradually lose sensitivity. What a pity and price to pay !
Remember as a kid what joy the bubbles gave us or was it the rainbow in the sky. It was all fun until we grew up. The emotional stress grew on us and we matured and look at the price we paid !
"Self-purification by self-observation" some claim is the summary of Buddha's teaching. Unless we learn to observe the thoughts and the mind how will we be able to understand them. Some call it witnessing - without bias, morality, questioning anything and without opinions - just being there sitting on one side and watching how things unfold.
However being so detached moves us away from being us to some extent. In such a pure state how will these material things and feelings move. If being detached in a state of meditation becomes a reality how will be not lose the sensitivity.
The eternal conflict is the experience to escape the hardening process of emotions - remain sensitive like a kid and yet be detached enough to observe and act.I guess this would be the real living - that would be the real emotion and that would be the real bliss or my interpretation of "this very Buddha this very mind"
No comments:
Post a Comment