The day the leapord lied down with the baboon...

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(you might want to watch the video before reading on)

This video hits me *so hard* emotionally. It was nature's answer for the question "What do you do when you have no clue what needs to be done?". So when I see a hurt dog on the road, or some men about to kill another man, I know what to do, yet I do not know what to do. Totally ironic, yet makes so much sense. It is another way to say "You can be responsible even though your actions can be limited or nil".


Sadly, by morning, the baby baboon passed away, mostly because it was famished I think. Consider these:

* The leopard notices the baby baboon after it killed its mother
* The leopard stayed with the baby until morning (all through the night) even though it had no clue what to do with it - until the baboon went still.

I put the behavior by the leopard on the same lines of the behavior by Hakuin, the great zen master below. BTW, the narration of the story is by Osho. Osho is talking about detachment below, but there is another aspect. Hakuin wasn't expecting the baby, yet he did what was required to be done. The first time I read this narration of the story (there are other versions on the net, but it doesn't have the same impact as when I read it in Osho's words), tears welled up in my eyes, and I did not even know why!

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In a village where the great Zen master Hakuin was living, a girl became pregnant. Her father bullied her for the name of her lover and, in the end, to escape punishment she told him it was Hakuin. The father said no more, but when the time came and the child was born, he at once took the baby to Hakuin and threw it down. "It seems that this is your child," he said, and he piled on every insult and sneer at the disgrace of the affair.

Hakuin only said, "Oh, is that so?" and took the baby in his arms. Wherever he went thereafter, he took the baby, wrapped in the sleeve of his ragged robe. During rainy days and stormy nights he would go out to beg milk from the neighboring houses. Many of his disciples, considering him fallen, turned against him and left. And Hakuin said not a word.

Meantime, the mother found she could not bear the agony of separation from her child. She confessed the name of the real father, and her own father rushed to Hakuin and prostrated himself, begging over and over for forgiveness. Hakuin said only, "Oh, is that so?" and gave him the child back.

For the ordinary man what others say matters too much, because he has nothing of his own. Whatever he thinks he is, is just a collection of opinions of other people. Somebody has said, "You are beautiful," somebody has said, "You are intelligent," and he has been collecting all these. Hence he's always afraid: he should not behave in such a way that he loses his reputation, respectability. He is always afraid of public opinion, what people will say, because all that he knows about himself is what people have said about him. If they take it back, they leave him naked. Then he does not know who he is, ugly, beautiful, intelligent, unintelligent. He has no idea, even vaguely, of his own being; he depends on others.

But the man of meditation has no need of others' opinions. He knows himself, so it does not matter what others say. Even if the whole world says something that goes against his own experience, he will simply laugh. At the most, that can be the only response. But he is not going to take any step to change people's opinion. Who are they? They don't know themselves and they are trying to label him. He will reject labeling. He will simply say, "Whatever I am, I am, and this is the way I am going to be."

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Paradigm Shift

What is it?
It is a shift in perception from one experiential plane to another. It re contextualizes our experience based on new definitions totally unconnected with earlier ones. It might be something that is desirable (think about some experience like love or compassion) or something that is harmful (think about some one being vengeful after a bitter experience).

What does it cause?
A change in perception, and consequently a change in relationships. Relationships dont refer to just people but to how we hold our thoughts, what we hold as thoughts, how we view material possessions and how we relate to people (not just dear ones - or shall we say, who become our dear ones).

What causes it?
I heard an Isha meditator narrate his experience during his yoga program. It was not yet time for the class to start, but was close to starting time. He went outside the hall for some reason and he saw someone arranging the slippers strewn outside the class hall. He assumed it was a volunteer and returned inside. Later, he was shocked to realize it was the person conducting the class himself. He mentioned "The class wasn't necessary. That once incident did it all!"
So, the short answer is, one can never say. It depends on multiple things - the event itself, the disposition of the perceiver (his body, mind, emotions and may be energy) and few other criteria possibly. Two people can see the exact same thing and perceive it completely differently - may be even in diametrically opposite directions.

What does it mean to us?
It means that once it happens, we will relate to our surroundings differently. Think about the lady who scolded her brother just before they were separated in a concentration camp and never saw him again. She decided that she would view every encounter with another person thereafter as the last encounter. Contrast the difference if she had not made that decision versus after the decision. And it is important to realize that it is not a decision of the mind alone. It is possibly a change in the entire chemistry of the system that left her transformed completely.
So if something like that happens to us, we may drop some material things, move away from certain people, attract certain people, do different things, do things differently, quit your job, get a job if you were idle - a million things.

You cannot *ever* be prepared for *what* causes the paradigm shift. Life is too vast!
However, you can be prepared, to an extent, for *what you will become* if it happens if you realize that these changes will happen!

How can you facilitate one?
(For all purposes, I am not interested in a counter-productive paradigm shift). 
May be it will anyway happen to you.
But I remember one of Sadhguru's quotes that sums up how one can keep herself to facilitate this.
"The way we think is the way we become. Whatever you hold as the highest, naturally all your energies get drawn towards that."
So one can say we can make a decision on what we hold as the highest.

Addictions

No one addiction is better than another. For example, an alcoholic's addiction is as much the same as someone who is addicted to caffeine. May be, some one is just damaging is body to a lesser extent. Again, may be, one addiction is socially acceptable than another. Essentially, it is a limitation or a crutch you cannot exist without.

You can swap one addiction with another to move from the socially unacceptable to the socially acceptable category. I had a friend who used to be addicted to eating paper (seriously). He then switched to Polo and it worked as a perfect substitute.

Or you can let it go completely.

What is the way out? There are only two fundamental methods - though the practical offshoot may be millions. One is for you to experience something larger than what the addiction offers. And this must be on a moment to moment basis and not a one time thing. I had a friend who used to smoke two or three cigarettes a day. He visited the IYC for a week and he mentioned that he did not even have the urge to smoke. That there would be no situation available to smoke there is another matter. Something worked at a deeper level and satisfied his body obviating the need to smoke. The habit obviously relapsed after he left the place.

The other is to sharpen your intelligence and see through the stupidity of the addiction. This is much harder! The very depth of clarity or insight can make the addiction fall off like a dead leaf, though I am not sure how many people are capable of something like that. This again needs to be sustained, because the bodily dependency on the additive / habit will keep going back to it. I read about a business man who dropped off his caffeine habit after just reading through the side effects - because he perceived his habit as stupid.

Anyway, either method - letting go of an addiction requires commitment and a lifestyle change. The taste of being liberated from an addiction and what takes its place is what will truly keep it away!

World Environment Day...

5th June 2009

These days roll by every year (earth day just passed by).

We dressed in green at our office today and our office today removed non-veg as an option in the food court as a symbolic gesture to "go green". These are fine and are needed, but any practical inputs to make a tangible difference?

I was wondering, for starters, if we can take out plastic bags from our lives. No, this is not about using them and taking them properly to a recycling center, as is done in the west - it is about discontinuing its use altogether (unless they are 100% biodegradable).

Any tips?

Whenever I fail to appreciate life...

Whenever I fail to appreciate life for what it is, I have Him. I *always* have and will have Him, and it is amazing!