Your True Self

Are you quiet? Quieten your body.

Quieten your mind.

By your own efforts

Waken yourself, watch,

And live joyfully.

Follow the truth of the way.

Reflect upon it.

Make it your own.

Live it.

~ Buddha from the Dhammapada

A very, very good morning everyone. I woke up beautifully this morning with a smooth transition from sleep to consciousness. The blink-and-miss-it moments between our sleep and awakening tells us a little something about the state of our minds, if we pay attention. After wishing God, my guardian angel (my nana) a good morning and blowing life a kiss, I decided to quieten my mind, rein it in, listen to my heartbeat, pay attention to my breathing. I realised that I was going into Vipassana mode and as my second course begins in less than a month, my heart remembers a beautiful couple I met on my recent trip to Jaipur.

Taiji (aunt) and taoji (uncle) are a friends relatives who I just met. They opened their hearts and home while we were in Jaipur and insisted that we stay with them (all this in spite of meeting us for the first time). Since we were three women travellers, they believed that we'd be safer in their home. We were served tasty food the moment we arrived and taiji and taoji embraced us with open arms... literally. The peace, satisfaction, love and calmness on their faces and in their hearts was palpable. We were enamoured. We later learnt that the beautiful couple lost everything financially on account of taoji's accident. There was a time, when this lovely couple didn't have a square meal to feed their own children. We learnt that after the accident, taiji devoted her life and breath to taoji and her children. During course of conversation, we learnt that in spite of everything, taoji completed 14 Vipassana courses and taiji had done four! As I sat and listened to them, I realised that taiji and taoji learnt only to love and share... they not only practiced Vipassana, they lived it. It's Vipassana and their belief and faith in the good Lord that helped them through times that could break even the strongest.

Ever since I started practicing Vipassana, I noticed how this form of mediation helps one grow in love, faith and belief. Vipassana meditation helps us get in-touch with ourselves - our minds. It reintroduces us to a part that's constantly on a roller-coaster. It helps us understand our mind and it's through that understanding, we eventually understand ourselves. I've always looked up to my spiritual gurus and used them as examples of spiritual living. I've often faced questions regarding how feasible a spiritual life is in this world we live in. I've never had a problem following the spiritual path in a layman's world; and now taiji and taoji reaffirm my belief that spirituality can find its place in this world. In fact, it's right here, here and now, stop, feel and experience. The real question is - will we allow it to make its place or will we find excuses for its absence?

Each and everyone of us are born spiritual, we'e born holy, we 're born pure. We lose our true selves along the way, but instead of focusing on the loss, we must change our focus to reconnecting and rediscovering our true self. The self - it's through this self that we will find God. Vipassana is one of the ways, one of the paths to finding our true selves. Whether we choose to read The Bhagavad Gita, The Bible, The Torah, Sri Ramana Maharshi, Sogyal Rinpooche, books from the Rigpa, the Buddhist percepts or any other spiritual literature - they begin with love. Love - true love for someone else, is loving oneself first. We often see in someone else, what we see in ourselves.

Let's conduct a little exercise: when you wake up tomorrow, try and observe how you see and feel about the world. If you're feeling cheery and happy and see beauty in everything (and I mean everything), then your mind is at peace and it's working in cooperation with your heart. In case you feel otherwise, then it's time to take a closer look at the state of your mind. Don't focus on the problem, all of us have one problem or another, focus instead on what you can do to solve it. Remember, sometimes God burns bridges, but believe that there is a path there you can cross. You can and you will. A problem is never a problem unless we want it to become one. A problem is a mere learning, an essential learning on the path to spiritual enhancement. Accepting all learnings will be easier only when you know yourself, you truly now yourself, your mind, your truth, you.

It's a simple beginning; begin by observing yourself, observing your breath, and slowly making your way within. When you go within, you may want to run back out and may be you will, but try again and again and again. Most of us, are just scratching the surface when it comes to ourselves and it's okay... as long as we've begun the journey.

Vipassana helps us understand that the good and the bad will change. When we experience joy, it natural for us to grasp at it and want it to stay in our lives forever; when we experience pain, it's natural for us to run away from it and in effect we run away from life's most important lessons (and of course there are a host of emotions and feelings in between). But remember, all things good and all things bad are temporary - there's nothing we can do except to accept the situation, enjoy them, learn from them, live through them and enhance our souls in the process.

Getting to know ourselves must start now, it's now. Vipassana enhances our journey, but sometimes we can begin ourselves by devoting a specific time in the day or night to quiet contemplation. The journey to ourselves is one of the longest ones we will ever undertake, but it's one that helps us realise who we truly are and truly discover God, truly discover God.

Today, I'd like to leave you with a quote from Vipassana, "This too shall change." Remember, if you're having a good time, revel in it, cherish it, love it and feel it for what it is; never rue its end, celebrate instead that it happened. In case you're going through a tough time, embrace it wholeheartedly, remember with faith that God has a lesson in there and once you've learnt your lesson or someone else has learnt theirs, your situation will change. Don't run, just embrace, accept and believe... and if things get too hard, look up at the sky, talk to God and believe that your guardian angel is right with you... here and now.

Have a fabulously blessed day everyone. :)

One Soulful Step at a Time

Pāṇātipātā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi (I undertake the training rule to abstain from taking life)

Adinnādānā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi (I undertake the training rule to abstain from taking what is not given)

Kāmesu micchācāra veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi (I undertake the training rule to abstain from sexual misconduct)

Musāvāda veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi (I undertake the training rule to abstain from false speech)

Surā-meraya-majja-pamādaṭṭhānā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi (I undertake the training rule to abstain from fermented drink that causes heedlessness)

A lovely, blessed morning everyone, I am back after a week of travelling and I begin today's post with contemplation on Buddha's five percepts. As I look back over the last week, I know that I am blessed to have met all the people I did; royalty, ministers, people from the arts, doctors, filmmakers and industrialists. All came from varied backgrounds, lived in different homes but all of them had one thing in common - they had a soul and acknowledged its presence and importance in their lives.

Career achievements was one thing, soul achievements was another. All of them are following their soul purpose; all of them broke preset moulds to get where they are and all of them are humble enough to admit that they are fulfilling their own destinies in God's time. They are all following God's plan and living it and that's where their sense of accomplishment truly lies. All of them admitted that when one follows God's plan, it feels right from within. It will give you a sense of peace and strength of spirit like nothing else. 

As I sit back and think of what each of them said, a few telling things come back to me: ex-minister Jaswant Singh telling me that his real friends are his books, blue-blooded designer Raghavendra Rathore hoping that he can facilitate positive change and trying his best to revive Indian culture through design, creator of the Jaipur foot - Dr Devendra Mehta on his effort to change people's lives one foot at a time, filmmaker Sooraj Barjatya who tries to highlight the importance of family values that are quickly lost on the younger generation... Indeed, change comes in different forms for different people. What's important is that all these people are on a continuous journey of soul-fulfillment and they are trying to help others get in-touch with their soul purpose too. Different people, different instruments of change, one soul-purpose. All of them are living soulfully, sharing their humbleness and living their change - for themselves and everyone else. 

I close my eyes and say a prayer of thanks: thank you God for giving me an opportunity to meet people who true purpose in life was to initiate change for the better. Thank you for blessing me enough to experience their humbleness and humility. Thank you, thank you. And you know what, each of them practiced Buddha's five percepts in one way or another. Here are just a couple of examples that personify Buddha's percepts and of course a few things that we can apply in our own lives.  

Dr Devendra Mehta said, "Us human can't even create an ant, what then gives us the right to kill?" Raghavendra Rathore said, "I can't think of politics at the moment. If I promise to put up a medical camp and fail to deliver, it will play on my conscious and I will not be able to live with myself." - If we read Buddha's percepts, we realise that they follow them. Whether we begin our day with Buddha's texts, the Bhagavad Gita, books by Sri Ramana Maharshi, the Bible, the Torah or any other spiritual book - we realise that all of them give us the same message, the same values for life.

All these successful people attributed their success to their life's calling - in other words, following God's plan. This begins by being true to ourself, true to our calling, true to our God, true to our destiny. It's time to stop, breathe, look within and ask ourselves a simple life-changing question: am I doing what the good Lord has planned for me? Am I following him? Am I allowing him to lead me on? Am I humble enough to accept that he knows best? I believe that God held my hand and led me through the last week - from buzzing Delhi to busy Jaipur to the peace and tranquility of Jodhpur. As I drove through the hot, hot desert, I saw people who found their peace in themselves, in God and in culture. Lessons in simplicity, humility, humbleness and truthfulness.

As I found myself back in noisy Mumbai city, I realise that I left a part of my heart in the hot Jodhpur desert... and I am glad for it. I am counting my blessings again and I realise that God is keeping on adding them to our kitty. I've learned how to look within and find my peace, now it's time for me to spread that peace and happiness to as many people, animals and nature as I can.

Life is about finding oneself and them helping everyone else to do the same. This is one of the many lessons I learned over the last week. Come, let's find ourselves and help others find themselves and their soul-purpose too. God is right here, guiding us, leading us and loving us. Let's embrace him and embark on the journey of a lifetime. That's all we have to do... begin with faith and love. 

Have a fabulously blessed day everyone. :) 

The Soul Story

Good afternoon, everyone. As the beautiful breeze caresses my cheek and plays with my hair, the two lines above sing a song in my heart and soul. C.S. Lewis famously wrote - "You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body."

Our souls; something we don't see, but feel, believe in and live. Our souls are one of God's most precious gifts and most enduring tests of faith. Like God, our soul is something we believe in without seeing. This physical life is just a path towards spiritual fulfillment. So, what are the scriptures trying to tell us in those two simple lines? Death is not the end, just a temporary stop in an ever-continuing journey. Our life on Earth is just a part of a longer journey that our souls must undertake.

When a loved one passes away, our physical being mourns the persons absence, however, our spiritual being celebrates the soul's passing from this life to the next. Most of us wonder what the next life involves; our soul's next step is determined by the path we take while on Earth. Who and what we come back as in a different life, depends on how soulfully we've lived our last lives. Have we been true to our God and ourselves and do we go to a higher realm or do we come back to Earth to pay for all that we've done and imbibe lessons that we've failed to understand? As we face our God and saviour on judgment day, we will have to answer some questions: Did we over-indulge in only worldly pleasures, ignoring our soul completely? Did we intentionally ignore our soul's purpose? Did we try and live as true to ourselves as we could? Did we abuse and misuse love? What have we done for the betterment of mankind, animalkind and nature? Did we allow our ego and pride to rule our lives? Did we depend on lies to get ourselves forward? How many times did we call on God, truly call on God in prayer without expectations, wants and demands? Did we live as God intended us to live?

What do you think our answers will be? Our physical life on Earth determines the path our soul takes. There's no reason to worry, because God is gracious enough to forgive us and allows us redemption. It's never too late to transform oneself and live fuller, complete spiritual lives. God doesn't focus on sins of the past, but on our transformation in the present in preparation for our soul's betterment... our true selves. Our true lives. Indeed, when the angel of death comes knocking on our doors, God awaits us, not to judge but to help us realise and understand that life is about our soul. Our transitional bodies in this temporary physical life are mere instruments that help us fulfill our soul's true purpose. While each of us have our individual soul purposes, the foundation of our physical lives are based on common values that find their breath in love, truth, goodness, peace, sharing, caring and all of God's will.

I've left all of you, including myself with a lot of questions today. These questions are mere little wake-up calls, nothing to be afraid of really, just little post-its for our physical beings. :) All of us have allotted times on Earth and as the clock ticks, we must spend our remaining time in accordance with God's will and our soul's purpose.

Dear God, thank you for a new day

Thank you for another chance to love and serve you

Thank you for reintroducing me to my soul

As always, I pray that when I open my mouth, I may say kind words to all

When I think, please give me the grace to think of good thoughts

When I'm weak, please help me find my strength in you

When I'm happy, help me to praise you and spread the happiness

When I'm sad, help me embrace and accept my sadness for what it truly is

My dear God, please give me the grace to live my life soulfully, just like you meant me to live it


Have a fabulously blessed day everyone. :)

Understanding Jīva (Life) and God

The words of Dhamma 

Akkodhena jine kodham (conquer anger by love)

Asādhum sāhunā jine (conquer the wicked by goodness)

Jine kadariyam dānena (conquer the stingy by generosity)

Saccenālikavādinam (conquer the liar by truth)

- Dhammapada 223

The Dhammapada is a versified Buddhist scripture that's ascribed to Buddha himself. My vipassanā practice urged me towards reading and studying Buddhist scripture. As I read on, I realised that all holy scriptures (The Bible, The Torah, The Bhagavad Gita, The Dhammapada) have a common message from God - live life with love. Love. God is universal, it's us, humans who choose to give him a name. I believe in the universal God and I am in the process of reading all the holy scriptures above.

Being the product of a Roman Catholic mother and Jewish father, a lot of people have questions regarding my diverse interest in all holy scriptures, love of mediation, vegetarianism and passion for Eastern philosophy. All I can say is that God is one, God is universal, God is love and Eastern philosophy and meditation bring us closer to God in ways that we cannot even imagine. All the scriptures above help us realise that life is about one thing - love; and all the good things come out of love - faith, caring, sharing, giving, generosity, purity, peace and of course the truth.

Today, I began my day with the above paragraph from The Dhammapada. As I read it over and over, I realised that Jesus too preached the same words. The Bhagavad Gita and The Torah too have examples of living life with equanimity (a state of mental and emotional stability that arises from a sense of temporal detachment from a reality we believe to be true), no matter what the situation.

So, how do we do this successfully? Especially, when we live in a world that is centered around 'I, me, myself'? Vipassanā helps us meet our mind, understand it and help it work with our heart and soul. Once our heart, mind and soul work together, it's easy to live with equanimity. Vipassanā started out as a quest for peace of mind, and has now transformed into a journey that shows me so very many layers to my spiritual self, that there is only one way for me now and that's the next step - the next step towards discovering another facet of my soul.

I woke up this morning, gave God, the universe, my guardian angels (my nana and papa) a big, sunny 'Good Morning' and read the above paragraph. So simple and sometimes, it's so difficult to follow, isn't it? But, vipassanā simplified it for me. You see, vipassanā helps us see things as they really are. When we do that, we realise at a deeper level, that we are just a part of a larger universe. We're here to fulfill our roles in accordance with God's will and leave when he knows that it's time. Life is about knowing oneself enough to realise that we're all children of God. Life is about another person more than it is about ourselves. That is how God lived, that is how he wants us, his children to live.

Think about it - a simple argument with a loved one or friend can turn very ugly if both parties argue. It's normal to have disagreements (human nature remember), but what's more important is to realise that an argument, any argument is not about anyone being right or wrong; it's about two or more people with different perceptions and understandings of a situation. Sometimes, mum and me argue. We hear each other out and try and understand the other. In case we don't, we let it rest for a while and when our minds are clearer, we decide to give communication another go. An argument isn't about the 'I, me, myself' being right - it's about accepting another's point-of-view and being able to move on from there. Of course, throw in a hug, kiss and/or a friendly handshake depending on who the person is. :) To me, this is a practical example of conquering anger with love. This can work in professional life too. Accepting an argument for the sake of peace is okay. Sometimes, sorting out a situation when both people are cool, helps. 

Anger shouldn't give rise to more anger, instead it must give birth to a lot of love and understanding, just as wickedness must be answered with goodness, stinginess with generosity and lies with truth. Indeed, the paragraph above is so simple, but the priceless lessons it helps us understand come straight from God. Religious scriptures are not something we may read and put away; they are God's lessons, God talking to us through his word. No matter what we may read, all scriptures teach us the same thing. I believe our universal God has given us different languages to help understand him better. His lesson though are all the same - all of them begin with love and truth.

If we truly contemplate and understand what he's telling us, we realise that different words mean the same thing - when we do things with love, we're able to look beyond ourselves and feel and understand another. Prayer and meditation are ways that bring us closer to him in a way that a blessed soul knows.

The universal language of love awaits us, our universal God loves us, prayer and meditation will take us closer and closer to him. Here's to all of us rediscovering him in each other and in ourselves.

Have a fabulously blessed day everyone. :)