Acharya Mahaprajna
Freedom from Suffering
Our body passes through various vicissitudes of time and life. Everyone is sometimes happy and at other times miserable; at times healthy, and sometimes sick; sometimes young and sometimes old. However, there are three chief miseries: sickness, old age and death.
Whenever one is sick, one suffers the misery of sickness. Normally a state of disease is a painful one for everybody.
Some scientists are engaged in research to eliminate suffering during sickness. Pain-killer drugs are administerd to alleviate pain during sickness. Some derivatives of opium, like morphine, are commonly used as pain-killers and every year, sale- value of such pain-killers amounts to millions of rupees. People buy them for headache, stomach-ache, pain in joints and knees, and continue to consume such drugs hoping to allevitate their suffering.
A varieties of therapies and remedies have been developed for curing the illness and/or getting rid of the suffering. Psychological research claims that in the next ten or twenty years we shall discover a mental exercise and give such training to the sick that it would be possible to live with the illness without suffering even without drugs. It has been well established recently that chemical substances having the same effect as powerful pain-killers, such as morphine, are secreted by certain parts of the brain.[1] One of them is called endorphine (meaning the internal morphine). A technique of meditation in the System of Prekṣā Dhyāna is called "perception of psychic centres."[2] By practising this meditation one can develop the ability to produce such internal chemicals at will and block out the pain.
Another form of phsychotherapy has also been established in the system of Prekṣā Dhyāna by which a practitioner can remain calm and composed even in the state of serious illness. Moreover, he can experience mental happiness without any drugs.
That one can remain happy even when one is in severe pain, may appear to be anomalous, but it is true.
By practice of anuprekṣā (contemplation) a patient can free himself from fear, anxiety and tension. By regular practice of "fearlessness", a practitioner can remain free from fear and anxiety, so that he suffers only a small fraction of the pain. In a state of irrational fear and anxiety, the pain is magnified while in the opposite state, the pain is almost "killed" and there is very little suffering. It is our emotional and mental state that increases or reduces our suffering. An important benefit of contemplation is development of the virtue of fearlessness and thereby free from anxiety and tension.
Attainment of Bliss (Samādhi) [3]
One of the most important benefits of the practice of contemplation is the attainment of the state of bliss and blessedness. It is considered to be the greatest achievement of a purposeful life. All other achievements, seem insignificant when one attains this state. One, who is fortunate to obtain various other things (wealth, power etc.) is, sometimes, found to be helpless and miserable. But one who has attained bliss is never, never unhappy or miserable. One attains bliss (samādhi) when one is free from physical sickness (vyādhi), mental agony (ādhi) and emotional malaise (upādhi). Only when one has overcome the trinity of physical, mental and emotional disorders, one can hope to attain sustained happiness. When one suffers from physical illness (due to mal-function of a vital organ), one is unhappy with pain and misery. If one is afflicted with a mental disorder (such as tension), one becomes agonised and does not have peace for a single moment. Inspite of possessing all the comforts of life, one feels quite unhappy. An emotional malaise is even more terrible than a mental malady. Emotional malaise means psychological distortion.
Cruelty, fanaticism, militarism, retalitation are some of the psychological distortions. When one suffers from one or more of these, one becomes almost inhuman does such acts docs not behave a human being. The obstacle of the above evil trinity must be removed before one can attain sustained happiness. Strange as it may appear one is able to choose one's way of life. "Which way shall I adopt? The way of the evil trinity or the way of bliss?" A question may be raised: Does anybody wish to choose the way of the evil trinity? The answer is: one suffers from the trinity of malaise only if one chooses to do so. An internal driving force produces a desire to become sick and ultimately manifests itself in sickness. The process is overindulgence in food, drink and sex; anger, greed and lust-all these are the precursors of sickness. How can one distinguish between the desire for overindulgence in sex, etc. and the desire for going on the path of sickness? In reality, both are identical. If one chooses the other way, one never falls sick.
Similarly, one who does not wish to be afflicted with a mental disorder will never suffer from it. This is so because a mental disorder is effective only if an internal desire drives one to the affliction and not oterwise. The mental state of like and dislike-attachment to some and aversion for others-are driving forces in this case. It is difficult to maintain mental health with strong likes and dislikes. Here also, one cannot distinguish between the desire for mental disorder and the mental tension produced by like and dislike - attachment and aversion. The same logic applies to emotional malaise. The root of all evils is greed and discontentment: and this is the basis of one's desire to choose the evil trinity of one's way of life.
This means that, if one desires to choose the other way of life, he is to overwhelm and subjugate his carnal desires of lust and hate. When one has discarded the path of the evil trinity and adopted the way of bliss, his way of life changes radically. In fact ' bliss', is not a miracle nor is it something reserved for a few chosen people. It is a way of life for anyone and everyone who cares to choose it One who realises this truth, this science of life, this art of living, can live a life of sustained happiness i.e. bliss.
The doctrine of contemplation is an important part of preksha meditation. Once the principle of contemplation and the technique for its practice is fully understood, a powerful tool for changing the way of life is in our hands. The aspirant of bliss, by the practice of contemplation, becomes aware of the obstacles in the process of attaining bliss. His desire for over-indulgence in luxuries, his negative attitude of like and dislike, his psychological distortion, etc. disappear with the subjugation of greed and discontentment Thus in the absence of factors which were responsible for generating the evil trinity, the state of bliss is attained.
Spiritual Healing
Practice of auto-suggestion will bring about radical attitudinal and behavourial changes. For integrated development of personality, it is necessary to bring about changes in the chemistry of the body, that is the synthesization of various chemical factors in the body, which have profound influence on the mental stages and behavioural patterns, must be transmuted. These chemical factors are mainly the hormones secreted and distributed by the endocrine system. Exercise of auto-suggestion influences the functioning of hypothalamus and pituitary which, in turn, produces a strong state of faith and belief: and a strong sense of faith can help a person cope With the various crises that in life countless number of people with sincere religious beliefs and faith become free from serous, incurable diseases by just touching the feet of saints and mahātmās (or putting the dust of their feet on the head). Does the miracles lie in the dust? No. It is the miracle of faith and religious belief. Thousands find inner calm and peace of mind through faith.
Prayer and worship produce profound joy and contentment. Nor is it essential to have a specific religious belief. One must merely develop faith in one's own consciousness and psychic self to help one to cope with a crisis, by developing underlying mental strength. Exercise of auto-suggestion (bhāvanā) is based on the practical application of faith and belief. The exercise brings about the necessary changes in the body- chemistry, thereby weakening the forces of disease and ultimately curing it. The process of producing or transmuting the internal chemicals is a form of faith-healing or spiritual healing.
Two regions in the brain known to be involved in pain regulation are: the medial thalamus and the periaqueductal grey matter (PAG)
The term SAMADHI is used to express (i) a state of intense ecstatic meditation and (ii) a state of intense and extreme happiness. Here the word is used to express the latter. In the English language the following words are used to express states of mental contentment and happiness: Bliss, Blesedness, Beatitude and Felicity. Bliss, in its commonst meaning, refers to continued complete happiness or inner contentment under all external circumstances. Blessedness and Beatitude usually refers to intense spiritual bliss. The former is commonly used while the latter is a more formal literary term. Felicity means sustained happiness, but the word is more formal and is less often used. The words pleasure, joy, delight, etc. also denote a feeling of satisfaction of happiness. But, in this case, the feeling is most likely to be sudden or transient and not sustained.
