Clare Rosenfield
When a bucket has even a single hole in it, no matter how many times you lower it into the well, the water will run out. What about the mind? Nature is there continually offering all its innumerable gifts. But if the mind has holes in it, how can it retain what it receives? No matter how many times it is filled with the bounty of the universe, it still feels lack and emptiness.
What makes these holes in our thinking? Our barriers and boundaries, likes and dislikes, resentments, judgments, expectations and projections, in one word, our karmas . Nature has no discrimination. The sun, the rain is for all. The air we breathe is universal; all are breathing universal breath. In our hurry to give labels and categories to the world, we do not see its beauty. We pass by nature's bountiful offerings. How to fill up the holes of the mind? Paushadha - take time to retreat from the many activities, which have created wounds in your psyche and mind and heal yourself. Take a few hours, a few days, a few weeks to heal yourself with the deep all-pervading peace of meditation.
Many of us do not know that we are bleeding inside. We have put bandages on top of our wounds to absorb the bleeding or we have taken outside medicines to dull the pain and numb the limbs. What kind of bandages do we use? Small entertainments, dependence on some saviour, a myriad of activities to keep us busy. As long as we are young and healthy, we don't notice the way we have been using these "painkillers" as a crutch.
The time comes when the downward spiral begins. The symptoms start to show. Inside there is hollowness, brooding, weakness, fatigue. The time comes when we have to confront ourselves. The time comes when we have to see our pain and call a halt to running away from it.
Pratikramana - Step back and see what you are and heal your wounds.
* * *
The real enlightened souls, from past and present, from all different geographical locations, used their days and nights for introspection, understanding, and meditation. Their inner voices took the form of words, and from these utterances of pure ecstasy and insight we glean wisdom. Out of their deep compassion for mankind they shared their teachings with us to inspire and uplift our lives.
What did they see? The unifying conscious energy, which is blissful, loving, and immortal, hidden in all living forms. What did they understand? That the universe works like a calculator, totalling all of our vibrations. Each thought we have has its own vibration. According to the way it vibrates in the universe, it attracts subtle atoms. These atoms are what build our thinking, speaking, longing. Thus we are able to diagnose man's disease by knowing that pain does not come from without, but that it comes as a result of something within - our own negative vibrations.
There are three steps we can take in order to fill in the gaps of mind and make ourselves whole:
- realize,
- recover, and
- retain.
First, realize what you are - the microcosm of the macrocosm. Before you can see the invisible, start with the visible; before you experience the formless, investigate the forms. See that in form you are composed of the same elements as the universe. The solid parts of your body - hair, teeth, skin, nails, and bones - are the earth elements. They are the "dust." All the fluids - blood, sweat, saliva, tears - are the watery elements in us. That which causes chemical reactions, including the digestion of food and body heat, is the fire element. The breath, which is constantly coming and going, is the air element.
So what is without is within. There is no running away from the world. The form you see in you is the form of the cosmos. In ancient Jain palm leaf manuscripts, artists even depicted the form of the cosmos in the form of man.
Because of this deep relation between microcosm and macrocosm, we are affected by seasonal changes. If it is cold outside, our body feels cold. Just as nature's forms are in a constant state of flux and change, so our form is undergoing continuous changes.
What is the hidden reason for change? What is the law behind the cycle of the seasons? To renew and refresh. In order to remain continually fresh, water is ever-moving, ever-renewed by the ebb and flow of the tides. Like water, if life does not flow, it becomes stagnant.
In order to adjust to the laws of nature, all forms accept change. We can learn even from the trees. In the fall, they give up their leaves. They do not resist. It is a process, a catharsis, a fasting, a cleansing, a shedding. It is throwing away the old in order to make room for the new. There is no sorrow or pain. There is deep patience. There is deep wisdom. They know that the life force is retained. Heat remains in their roots.
