To be a student of Change We need to learn about life from it We need to acknowledge its flow As part of life, in every now. To know there will be interruptions And understand them as intentional Synchrony at play. To self arrange the chaos that is sensed. So in these very changes As we keep, acknowledging life As part of the same flow We begin to be one with change In conscious awareness And trust life to flow For Change is the only constant.
To me walking has been synonymous with freedom, and I believe that it is one of the best ways to balance your mind and body every day. I have been enjoying this healthy activity pretty consistently.
Walking is something people take for granted but with the right approach the act of walking can be a friendly support for a lifetime.
But this is about walking and walking on from pride of success so that you create space for more.
Touch beyond the feeling Sense beyond the seeing Move beyond the doing Listen beyond the hearing Engage beyond the working Give beyond the gaining Think beyond the worrying Play beyond the winning Blend beyond the bordering Involve beyond the training Share beyond the owning Will beyond the trying Help beyond the supporting Heal beyond the treating Flow beyond the envisioning Care beyond the loving Dare beyond the comforting Explore beyond the limiting Reach beyond the knowing Live beyond the existing… Know Infinite is the truth of being!
When you look at other people through a lens of compassion and understanding rather than judgment and jealousy, you are better able to see them for what they are—human beings.” ~ Unknown
The way we see the world Changes our experiences Lesser expectations Greater contentment Lesser assumptions & doubt Greater trustfulness Lesser hopelessness Greater possibility Lesser the complexity Greater the clarity.
The wall of the mind Is in each of us to forge through… In valuing the space between Two thoughts, two steps or two notes.
In choosing harmony of synchrony In conscious awareness In discerning thoughts & associations. In response than reaction In connecting the dots. In realizing the grace of unity.
All is in sensing the strength Of the circle of conscious connections.
Sharing a Tamil story translation by my mother Anjana.
I found this piece written by her today morning and shared as I felt many times we are ourselves in the way of our blessings. There is so much abundance, we are yet not ready to hear, take, care to see, that we miss partaking the joy of having them, often because our own ignorance, ego or lack of awareness comes in the way. All the abundance mean nothing if we are not ready to receive it.
Let’s be open ready to receive…
It was raining heavily. Grand mother was sitting in the verandah and her little granddaughter was playing nearby… So the grandmother told her granddaughter so much water is going waste,so keep a big vessel to fill clean water.
The girl who was playing refused to listen. So the grandmother noticed it and said sternly, Is just keeping the big vessel in the rain a big job? Go and keep it in the open. Grandma ordered. The girl went with half mind.
After some time when it stopped raining, Grandma got up to happily bring the vessel full of water. She was shocked to see ,not a drop of water was collected. The girl has kept the vessel upside down , just as it was kept inside!
Of course there was plenty of rain, but the vessel was not ready to collect a single drop.
Same like the Universe is filled with Divine blessings. But our hearts are not open to receive it. If we are ready with open heart the Cosmic Abundance will be in harmony with us.
How many of you writers, have felt people equating your creative writing with your life?
As a writer I do know that creativity comes up in the most unexpected moments. It may have or not at all have anything to your own experiences. Much of the creative process can happen in attention to details as a keen observer, in witness mode , in associations of thoughts and feelings and in sensing emotions in empathy, concern or care, that may have or not have any personal connotations.
Writing is the freedom of expression in flights of imagination, its a beautiful art and that is free for interpretation once it has been published. For the writer has chosen to let it go…
How it came to be, is a mystery sometimes to the Author too😉
Sharing a thought provoking forward that came my way…
I was 9.
There was pensive silence at home when days after the happy news of my dads promotion in a nationalised bank he received orders of transfer as a branch manager to a small village in Rajasthan. We were then in Ahmedabad and this also happened to be the time he was building a house next to our ancestral home.
I had seen him struggle with numbers, adding, subtracting, circling staff loans and FDs he would break and putting a question mark against a few empty spaces in the total.
A house is usually a one time in one life effort so everyone goes all out and makes that one room more than what can be afforded and still finds one room less than what was needed. Javed Akhtar puts it beautifully बम्बई में बस एक ही गम हैं, हरेकके पास एक कमरा कम हे.
The joint family home housed 14 of us from age 5 to 95 years.
Today I watch both the houses abandoned and nature taking over the garden my mother used to tend for hours every day. The Jamun, the Drumstick a few Ashok, Neem and Peepal have survived but all beauty is both transient and fragile and the law of entropy powerful. The lovely flowers of myriad colours are all gone. I wonder what happened to the peacock family that came everyday and ate from my moms hand. The Bulbul, the sparrows, the parrots, spotted flycatchers, Cuckoos, a huge troop of monkeys that once in a month would upset the order of the place.
Once people leave, a home becomes a house. Initially I didn’t feel like selling and now I don’t feel like going. Time has taken away ten of its fourteen occupants.
I walk around our neighbourhood and see similar fate of so many homes once full of life now replaced or lying still.
Why do we stretch and stress to build houses? In most cases our kids won’t need it or worse fight over it. What is this human folly of attempting permanent ownership in a leased life with an uncertain tenure given by a landlord whose terms are non-negotiable and there is no court of appeal.
One day all we have built with love and EMIs will either be demolished, fought over, sold or lie in ruins.
Every time I fill a form that asks for ‘permanent address’ I smile at human folly.
There is a Zen story that an old monk walked into a Kings palace demanding he wanted to spend the night in this Inn and the guards told him, “What Inn, can’t you see its a palace?”. The monk said “I came here a few decades back someone was staying there, a few years later someone else took the throne from him, then someone else. Any place where the occupant keeps changing is an Inn.”
George Carlin says “house is just a place where you keep your stuff as you go out and get more stuff”.
As houses get bigger families get smaller. When the house has occupants, we desire privacy and when the nest empties we crave for company.
Birds and Animals must be laughing at us humans that give up living in order to build their dream home and in the end depart the Inn they mistook as a permanent residence.
Your yesterday may have seemed very tough Your entire body may have taken a toll Your head and heart may have felt heavy Your eyes may have welled up in tears Your emotions choking you Your breathing may have been constricted Your muscles may have felt tight. Your steps laboured and dragging Perhaps a sense of resignment may have reigned all through the day…
Yes it may have been more than you could handle But handle you did For you are alive and kicking. Today your heart is lighter And you are breathing easy With a song on your lips And a dance in your steps Your body willing And in enthusiastic spirit Looking forward to another day To put in your very best And make it another great day!
The question is then, what is happening in you, one moment to another And what are you doing to alter the effects of the moment. And what actually alters everything. Simply put, your own thoughts And the power of your choice Choosing one thought over the other.
Trust life to show many colours every day but know you have the choice in how you choose see and perceive it.
Every day can be good or bad day… But it’s in the way you chose see it… That changes the day!
The best kind of learning is in the sharing of thoughts and ideas, for it kindles more learnings.
I share today this interesting and profound para forward translation from Tamil by my mother to which I too have added a few verses.
If it interests you, pls feel free to contribute your thoughts here… The message in the translation is very relevant. I sincerely hope it creates a chain of collaborative thoughts.
Today is Gurupurnima. And I take this occasion to thank my mother my first Guru & all the teachers in my life for the learnings in the sharings as well.
The fish which swims in water, doesn’t know that it’s end will come by its food only.( Ignorance)
How much ever beautiful the deer be, the tiger doesn’t appreciate its beauty, it is behind its taste. (Pride, arrogance)
Translation from Tamil by Anjana
There is no pride in Beauty It matters not, in times of survival
The frog becomes prey to snake by its sound only.(boasting)
In spite of knowing it will get killed , the scorpion bites ( haste)
The way to one’s downfall is ignorance, pride, arrogance, boasting and haste.
Anjana
Adding my musings to it this morning…
The wisdom of Mindfulness
Ignorance may not be bliss after all. There is no pride in Beauty It matters not, in times of survival Your so called assets can be a weakness That makes you and marks you out.
Without mindfulness Moves become meaningless For one move can decide life’s fate Without survival tactics Life cannot exist.
Beauty pride vanity speed Gifts & Riches of any kind Abilities and skills… Be it your voice or earnings Mistake not these your strengths.
For true strength Is discretion And discernment In what how when and where. And in moderation & mindfulness Lies the Wisdom Of Balance.
Continuing in a series on Life and Living … The subject of Beauty brings to mind its paradox As mentioned in my last article I would like to reflect on this with my readers and fellow writers and work in collaboration towards a certain consensus if attainable .
Here is a beautiful reflection of the thoughts of this reader who starts by visualizing in the vebalisation of the beauty in the elemental awareness of nature and culminates her standpoint in the beauty of nurture…
Of a mother and child and the beauty in a loving heart.
Thank you to my dear mother Anjana for your exemplary examples. Rest assured I certainly will be reading these lines often.
“Anything that pleases the eye is beautiful..How much exquisite or breath-taking the physical beauty may be… it’s just skin deep. Beyond that all is same.
A wise soul has this awareness. Though the elements may be the same, their arrangement makes the difference. But there is beauty in the wilderness too.
The dancing flames of fire, the eruptive flowing and glowing lava of the volcono, the blowing sand making patterns on the sands of deserts, the mystery that lies in the underground caves, in the depths of the oceans, in the vast space that surround us , there is beauty in everything. A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.
Above all beauty has a connection with love in the heart. Even the so assumed ugliest child looks beautiful to it’s mother. After all beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. Can anything be more beautiful than a compassionate and kind heart that sees goodness in all.”
The lines above have an sensitive emotive and reflective quality which is engagingly beautiful to me.
There is great wisdom in these two ways to live life lovingly. Both are pathways in the ebb and flow of life.
To see from nothingness Is to see possibilities ahead. To keep hope alive in your heart. Cultivate faith in patience and trust.
To sense gratitude even when you have everything, Is to know that there is much more than what is visible. You are a tiny speck of the magnificent whole. And no life is less or more important. And that every life plays a significant part.
In awareness there is heartfelt thankfulness in contentment for everything you already have.
As you cultivate these habits every day becomes incrementally better. Or perhaps you begin to understand gradually, the power of managing change rests within you. Stay patient Trust yourself. In thankfulness See the light You actually are.
Savvy Raj 
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