Response-ability -- which is first ?

I was thinking of this word responsibility , simply put, it is the ability to respond. The sentient being's reciprocation, an ability to believe and also convince others that "I am alive". this is obviously not present in all other insentient beings, like, wood, table, chair, etc... these are objects that need to be cognized by the incognizable conciousness. Knowledge about our existence is present only when we exist. Knowledge and existence go together. Knowledge of an object is cognized only when we exist. Who is cognizing this object, not the insentient body of ours, it is the sentient nature of conciousness.



Ability to respond is present in all sentient beings, from animals - to an entire set of evolutionary creatures... until us human beings. But the fundamental difference is we human beings can think beyond the realm of our body, insentient state, try to comprehend who is cognizing the objects around, who is experiencing pain , pleasure... etc



If existence is required to absorb knowledge around us, which one came first? Is it the objects that we ought to cognize or the knowledge of objects around us, or the knower. What is knowledge worth without a knower, what is a knower worth without the knowledge, and what is knowledge and knower worth in a world of nothing?



So the secret of existence of this world is in the fact that things that we approve of as the world around us, needs approval and recognition, saying, "I know this is a car,I know to drive, I know I have to do this... etc". So similar to the objects, insentient, objects, it is the fact that we ought to apply to others too, the intangible, elements created by the mind, emotions, feelings, all these come to life only when we approve of it. We know and approve of a feeling that is right there in us. Hence this entire world that is around, our feelings, interactions with others everything is just a an "Identify - acknowledge" process. The funny fact, is this same identify - acknowledge process continues in the drream state too, from the Waking state. There we still identify and acknowledge elements, both sentient and insentient, how many times have we been waking up from a chasing lion/ tiger. yes, at this waking state, we do have a sense of relief that the tiger was just in the dream, but the approver / acknowledging person is also approving the fact that "I" was experiecing a dream, and none of that was real, now "I" in another state.

Truly the same way, the ability to respond exists only in two states, Waking and the dream. Now there is another state, where there is no dream, no acknowledgement, identifcation, process happening, it is just "being" state, the state of deep sleep. how many times have been through this, day in and out, when we come out of it, it is a sense of total forgetfullness, we dont remember a thing what happened, why ? For the simple fact, the ability to remember is fathomed only by our cerebral process, this is put off completely, the mind doesnt control any more. have you ever wondered, we cannot get into deep sleep mode programatically, ie, we cannot predict someone getting into deep sleep. We may have sleeping pills, that drowses us away into non-activity stage, but it is still not deep sleep. Ouyr minds are active even then, dreams / hallucinations are possible. in the deep sleep state, mind, body nothing is being acknowledged. There are two important inferences that can be drawn out of this.
a. We automatically are given a glimpse of the secret to happiness in this world(so called identified, acknowledged world), which we dont analyze.
b. We dont need, body, mind or any of the structure that we claim to be ours in place, to be happy.

In the deep sleep state, there is a witness, which whitout the use of body , or mind equipement "sees" the state, but cannot explain, as if it has to be explained, we have to borrow words out of this world, but that will never match the actual experience. So the experience beyond this world in the deep sleep state, holds the answer to all our issues.

Analyse, what is that, that knows the experience, but cannot describe. !!

Roles - as a actor in life

Birth, brings out the opportunity to don several roles we ought to expect. Right from birth, be it a girl / boy, we go through a myriad of roles to evolve ourselves. Son - Brother - lover - husband - father - father inlaw - ... what not... it is never ending.

are we really born to go over all these roles, and yet understand the reiterating eternal truth that this life is not to go over all these, but to be used as a tool to get out life itself. You would have donned the same role in your previous birth ( for all those past life believers), even otherwise, in the same life span, we don the same role or have the opportunity to take up a specific role multiple times, but most likely we correct our mistakes and learn from it. that is exactly the same law applied to rebirth. In every birth, with a little realization, we evolve to the next best state. all we require to run this life is just mere grace, who are we, to even decide on our wants, wishes, dislikes etc... we dint come with any of these when we were born, infact our crying entry into this world is a good enough metaphor to prove that the journey henceforth is painful.

Are we able to do justice in any role that we have donned, by the time we realize our mistakes, majority of our life span is gone. Back biting, bitching about others, kith and kin, hate crimes... what not, majority of all these trivialities form our life, and dictate our daily activities. what is wrong in accepting one's imperfection, that is the first step to evolution. No one being can be perfect in all the roles donned. Claiming to be perfect in a role is utter foolishness, as if that would have been the situation, the guideline for a role would be the bible.

Expectations, out of each role, is another googly to the entire spin of life. We don a new role, and expect things to be normal, where as the interactional elements in the society, or family has its own expectations. See the stark irony, expecations are themselves perceptive phenomena, and we expect each of the interactional element;s expectation to match and yield positive results.

Why waste this precious life over such trivialities, focus on something constructive, something that is more real than surreal... focus on how to get out of this life without getting caught in all this triviality. the only answer that is there for all these trivialities is seek who is the one enjoying pleasure / happiness, or experiencing pain / grief.

hold on to Ramana's feet http://www.sriramanamaharshi.org/teachings.html

Selfless service is the key to getting out of this attached detachment.

Time is the culprit

In the crazy maze of finding the things that pleasure us, what have we not done. Expectation and hope have become our second nature, we sleep with the hope of seeing the sun again, why should everyone of the nature's components do thier job, and we just sit there expecting.



isnt it ironical, for a moment, if we consider ourselves as just another component in this entire vast creation shouldnt we too be doing our duty. What happens is, in the process of searching for this happiness, we lose our entire lives to the mirage of time, the great culprit and the doyen of deceit.



The true nature, the virtue of the human being to search for happiness is by itself a viable proof that the search for all transitory objects around , and all man made elements will doom with us unto grave. We are caught so much with each other's false ideologies, that the true happiness that we are trying to acquire is lashed with so many transitory chaotic situations that we sway away from the original goal.

as a child, the impressions that is borne by the mind, via multitude of modes and channels, are the seeds sown. If the seeds sown is carrying methods, or even aspirations to acquire for the real happiness then it would bear its fruits. Unfortunately, what we do is provide all materialistic objects to the child to attract, impress, and control it, what happens next is as easy as anybody's expectation. The child forfeits each material object for another, in every step of its to the grave, trying to succumb to desires attached to each material object.

Where is this eternal time, that has been there since the BC, 0 AD, where is this scale the big scale that decides everyone's destiny, standing a mute witness to all the atrocities, good things, that happen. rightly seen, there is no future, it is only the present, every moment,even as I write is what is true, well not really true, but let us assume that it is the one that can be experienced.

we either keep thinking about the future, or the mistakes, good things in the past. Why do we take so many photographs for every moment that we enjoy, without enjoying the moment, we try to capture a moment in picture format / video format to keep rejoicing on this in the future. Because, we know that happiness cannot last long, if it did, do we need a photograph !!

Utilize the present effectively to draw essence out of the search for eternal happiness, not transitory happiness attached to any material object.

Existential reality

It is widely discussed that there are three states in which a human being exists, waking state, dream state and deep sleep. The funniest part is how often do we get up from a racing motorbike dream, or our favourite fantasies with our most favourite heroine, and yet gasp for breath, or heave a sigh of relief "oh its a dream"


we do have godly dreams, wake up to find that god was the same mainfested image of our perception as the fantasised heroine. you fight so hard in your dream against a villain to save , or you run away from some thug, do you really run... do you waste the energy that you derived after a good hearty dinner, no not really.


the concept of this dream state is realized only when you come out of this, into the waking state, but who will tell you that waking state is real... why should it not be another dream for you to realize about this in another state. Hold on... am i going jibberish... surely not.


Who empowered you to inflate your ego to think that you are living? your idea of living is conceieved by the fact that you know your hands are working, legs are working, you are able to feel yourself, others, by the sense of touch, vision, etc... but wait a minute... this sense of touch, vision... is it just a manifestation of an energy innate.

Is this life real, what is the essence of this life? We toil hard for our family's happiness, and realize that the family is the not the one that provides or nourishes happiness. Happinees is a funny concept altogether, it is a mirage, visible, yet untangible, realizable yet un-sustainable, it is a state, like the different states of matter. It is the mind's perception, or manifestation of congnitive ego inflation. Every action we do, the outcome ought to bring either pleasure / pain inturn happiness / grief.

This waking state is the only means for us to realize our essence of life. It is not the means to search for wealth, go crazy behind it, or lust, sex, greed, hatred or for that matter anything ephemeral. Utilize this body to cross the mystery of life.

Mon(k)ey

consider the word Mon(k)ey, just happened to scrutinize this more closely. It says it all, the monk with money becomes a monkey. Who is this monk, what is this money and finally the monkey

Human beings are blessed with free will, and yes it is a curse too. We all feel that we should have taken the other road, thinking that the other road would have been better, but the road or the cross roads you see are most of the times, behind you. How much of visibility do we really have when we march into the future? If that visibility is there, then why do we even exist? Our existence is obviously turned into living by riding on hope to accomplish this visibility. Monk is the heart that is inclined towards serving others, forgiving others, seeing the good, thinking and doing good. If this monk that is in us, clings on to any materialistic aspects of life, our heart is controlled by the mind which is the monkey. Money is the lure in whatever form, money was created by man, now man is being ruled by money.

Crazy, fast life do we even have a moment to think and do good to others. Just imagine for a moment, if everyone cultivates this as a habit to do good for someone every day, no feud, no worries, no hunger... we will achieve global brotherhood. Even in our own families how much of tolerance do we have on our own relatives, do we forgive them for thier misgivings. If there is so much feud in people belonging to same family, where are we going?

God has enabled us to utilize this human faculty to realize "HIM". He has brought out this analogy in every single act that happens in this world. Consider, basic school science, atom is made up of electrons, protons and neutrons ( I am not touching the quantum side for ease of understanding), now any compound, element is made of these very atoms. If we use an electron microscope that is also made of these atoms, dont we use that to view the atoms ( electrons).

we need to relate this to using human body to realize "HIM". What is this realization that we are talking about? realization that our basic aim in life is not going behind this materialistic muck but to ponder on why we are here, what are we doing, is this the real pursuit of happiness?

That is why god is so good a designer, he has given free will to everyone, never interfere's in any one's decision, every action including the microcosm to macrocosm follow this newton's third law, every action has equal and opposite reaction. So true isnt it, we call newton invented this... I would say he meditated on this fact.

Crux --- Dont get lured by money and lose the monk in you to become a monkey. Our sole ability to analyze is the key to our holistic development. Spiritual development automatically showers all round development, turn towards your heart, think why you are here, what are we doing, how we do things better to serve others and evolve to a higher state.

Money

Men are puppets in the arms of money,
with greed lurking in the hearts of many,
They long for position and power,
and the sure way to get within the hour is money.

They feel that once they have wealth,
they possess mind and souls by bribe or stealth,
one important thing they dont realize is,
they themselves are possessed by money.

life is a fragile canoe,
striving to cross the sea of desires,
but this life is sweetest with money,
with a portion of chiffon-pie and honey,
than greed that conquers the hearts of many.

-- thoughts contributed by my wife Divya

Just do nothing !!, That is all I am asking

Have you ever wondered, why there is so much of happiness and pain around everyone, and especially you... hey its you... I am talking about. Take anything that you have done so far... just contemplate on any act that you have done... there is a pleasure and pain index associated to it did you know that... most often we do not care a damn about it, or we are numb towards it.

Every action that is performed, has a pleasure and pain index associated to it, and obviously we cant sit doing nothing, can we. It would be a worth while job to just sit doing nothing, but being dumb you would end up as a vegetable, which I feel is better as you dont act what your mind says... if you act by what your mind says, you are bound to score a pleasure and pain index. The very act that i am typing this for the benefit ( bull shit benefit) of all is in itself a pleasure and pain aspect.

Pleasure and pain are both just states of mind of a being, and if you look into this in a more scientific way... recollect the uncertainitiy principle... " you cant measure the velocity and position of a particle at the same time", it is so true that you would not be able to measure this pleasure and pain at the same time... that is why we always gravitate towards either of this...

Have you been in both pleasure and pain at the same time... ??? If yes, then your brain is having a core dump and you need a restart :-)

Pleasure is just a reflection of pain (180 degrees other way round). Pleasure to pain ratio in the entire planet is 1:1 so, the forms of pain are different so is pleasure, but it is conserved at the end. So pain cant be created, it is transcending from one form to another, same with pleasure. There is always an absolute pain to pleasure present in the entire universe.

Your action is the key, it drives you either in the pleasure or pain direction, which again is just a perception, mind manifests into pain and pleasure utilizing the different physical sensory measurements.

so just do nothing... is all what it requires to transcend this mind and realize the ultimate !!!!