Oh, life relax please!

-by Swami Sukhabodhananda

There was a belief in an empire that whoever becomes its emperor, would go to heaven and inscribe his name on a golden mountain. A man believing this ideology, toiled throughout his life, sacrificed his happiness and became the emperor.
When he died, he went to heaven. The gatekeeper at the doors of heaven was very indifferent. The emperor retorted,

‘Don’t you know that I am the emperor?’
The gatekeeper replied,

‘Many emperors have come here from time immemorial. So what is so great about you?’
The emperor was shocked and asked him to lead him into the golden mountain.

The gatekeeper answered casually,
‘Go straight and turn right, you will find the way to the golden mountain.’

The emperor reached the mountain and tried to inscribe his name on the golden mountain. He found the whole mountain filled with names; he was disappointed not to find space to inscribe his name. He came back and inquired the gatekeeper,

‘Where can I find space to inscribe my name?’
The gatekeeper casually replied,

‘Wipe of one of the existing names and inscribe yours.’

In the infinity of time, where do we exist?

The greed for name and fame is a juvenile approach to life. If we understand insecurity closely, we find that insecurity is not really a problem. In fact, our concept of security is the real problem. Insecurity is a form of change. Change is God’s mechanism of presenting us a problem. If we see change in this light, then we will not be victims of change but will participate in change. Participating in change is participating in surprise. Our insecurity will disappear if we look at change as something to be experienced without our ignorant concept of security.

Another great bondage is that of Greed… greed for money, name, fame… People sacrifice happiness for the sake of money, name, fame… is this not foolish?

The husband ask,
‘When my wife gets angry, it is like a rage of a thousand flames. How do I deal with it?’

Can you see your expression very closely? It is a product of your imagination. One of the teachings of George Gurdiieff is… There is an imaginary self in all of us. If one is not watchful, it creates its own world of reality. In a relationship we have to observe how our imaginary selves operate and learn to handle them with maturity.

When one is in a negative frame of mind, observe the following steps:
• Negativity is not in a given situation; it is more in us.
For example when we say, ‘Picnic is spoiled because of rain’… a negative feeling is generated – is it in rain or in us?

• Do not identify yourself with negative feelings.
Feelings are like clouds which come and go fleetingly; but you are like the space. Do not identify with the clouds; but be centered in the space of consciousness. This process is called detachment.

When you are attached to your negative feelings you become a prisoner to them. Attachment creates hell.

In the earlier days, there was an interesting technique for catching monkeys. A huge jar with a narrow neck was used. Nuts/bananas were dropped into a narrow necked jar, in the presence of a monkey. A monkey trying to grab the bananas from the jar get caught, because its fist is clutching the bananas, would get stuck in the narrow necked jar.

Only if it dropped the nuts, would its hands be free and easy to remove from the jar. But the monkeys were too attached to drop the nuts and free themselves; hence, they were caught. Are we also attached like this?

Can we experience a sense of wonderment when we see difficult people creating their own world of hell? The experience of wonderment relaxes one’s being. First change has to happen within us, only then we can motivate others.
‘If you feel good, you will experience that the world is right.
But ignorant people feel that only if the world is right would they feel good.’
Insecurity is a change. Change is God’s Method of presenting us a surprise.
Attachment means… without “this” happening, I refuse to be happy. Let go..