Square slot, Round peg

try as you may, the two simply cannot make a perfect fit..

so you do your pooja in the morning, go to the mosque on friday or church on sunday - what about the rest of the time? your underlying core finds its expression in its daily interaction with the world as you know it... this is who you are.

whether these are days of excessive indulgence or quiet contemplation, how you live on a daily basis is what defines you... chanting a mantra for 2 minutes in the morning is not going to stop you from wanting that glass of wine by 6pm ... the call for happy hour is way stronger than that!  you may praise god and say he is all love and ever present but the guy who is driving you to work is an imbecile - where did the love go? did god decide that this particular cab driver was suddenly not part of his "everywhere"?  is love suddenly not the answer?

so what's the problem here?  Nothing at all if you are honestly being yourself - the issues arise when the way you project yourself is intrinsically not who you are or who you could be ... when what you say is your faith is something you have no faith in, for you do not practice it and it finds no expression in your life.

this fracture ultimately leads to repression, shame and frustration .. a ticking time bomb, the repercussion of which will not only be deadly to yourself but also to those around you.

if you want to go out every night, do it. exhaust yourself, drain your life force and waste away - there is no judgement - its your life to do as you please.  why make excuses for it ?
if you want to study, evolve and keep a marginal social contact with the world, that is fine too.
if you manage to find a balance, apply what you study and help those around you, you may try to do so.

there is no right way or wrong way for all water finds its way to the ocean.

the point is this... if you feel the need to pray, a part of you wants more - more than what you know your life to be. but what is this more and why do you forget that you want it once you step out of your silence? what pulls you into the chaos again and again?  the same clubs, the same indulgences, the same need to be praised and admired, the same need to show the world who you are, the same need to accumulate more and more, the same insecurities, the same fear of being invisible, the same, the same, the same  ... how exhausting to be perpetually stuck like a fly in amber ...

and again in that silence, the same emptiness...

so what am i selling here? nothing! your life is your own - it has absolutely nothing to do with me - all i am doing is holding up the mirror - look closely and ask yourself : " do you like what you see ? "

live well.

The Lighthouse

Life is simply not long enough to make every possible mistake – so it is best to learn from the mistakes made by others. How best to stay together, how best not to lose heart, how best to stay strong in the face of the insurmountable and most importantly, how not to get lost in the dark. These lessons are usually learnt in hindsight, when it is too late to be of any use… here I build my lighthouse for you to avoid some of the rocks i crashed on.. build your own for those are walking a similar path to yours so that they, too, may benefit from your experiences...

• The ultimate motivating force is usually self preservation : acknowledge it – never pretend to be better than you are but always strive sincerely to evolve.
• Greed brings with it both ambition & accumulation while hand in hand, it may cost you everything you hold dear.
• Always ask yourself, “why am I doing this ? what will it cost me ? is it worth it ?”
• Expectation is usually met with disappointment.
• There is no escaping the fruits of your action or intentions. Tread carefully.
• You will grow old and you will die .. make your life about more that just hoarding and consumption.
•  Remember you are not as smart as you think you are… Ask for advice if you need it.
• Words, once spoken, will never be forgotten.
• Let those who are important to you know that they are loved.
• Allow yourself to be loved.
• Learn to forgive - it lightens your own soul.
• Pray everyday – not “for” anything but in gratitude and humility.
• Share with those in need.
• Be gentle with the young and patient with the old.
• Never forget, everything changes - including what you think will make you happy.
• Know that all will unfold the way it is meant to - watch and accept with grace and courage.
• Find your peace and live in harmony with all of creation.

Live well.

Let's do the Math

here are the variables we have to work with :

who i am and what i want
the things out there and what makes them desirable
the medium of interaction : time and space
the method of interaction : life

life, simply put, is an expression of the Infinite Universal Principle.
time and space seems to split the universal into structural differences
these particular manifestations attract us only if we perceive their effects upon us to be pleasurable
the objective of happiness or pleasure drives us in our unending pursuit of these objects
and ultimately we have no idea who we are or why we can't find perpetual joy or bliss.

how does one work this puzzle out ?

the problem stems from the fact that we are trained to spot differences and not the underlying unifying principal ...

there are a million different "things" out there ( and these include the people we interact with ) but it is not the things that interest us, we are looking for their ultimate effect ... the hope that we will derive joy / happiness from such a union ..  yet infinite joy is not possible by mere addition of finite items.

however, multiplicity does not negate the essential One - the interfering vapors of time and space upon the Universal gives us the shimmering mirage of life as we apprehend it - fractured, stressful and empty.

yet time and space borrows it's power from our very consciousness ... in deep sleep, where is your city, child or empire - where did time itself go ?

so we come back to Consciousness ... the original source, the ongoing substratum and our ultimate goal.

an applied cognition of this Principal brings the particulars back into the fold of the universal - that is, nothing is abandoned but rather absorbed back into our essential Being and when seen from this standpoint, no desire remains - all that is, I AM.

So the final equation for a happy life ?

RECOGNIZE and TRANSCEND ( careful now: this is not the same as reject and suppress ! )

use your life, with a vision fine tuned to see past the distorting lens of time & space, to understand that true joy and bliss lie beyond the scope of the accumulation of finite objects but rather in dissolution of the individual entity and myriad objects into the cosmic whole.

You Are All That You Behold - what, then, is left to want or need !

problem solved :)


live well.