Thinking and Learning

There is this wonderful example of a child which spends a lot of time with the mother, before he or she goes to this place called school. The child is with the mother while the mother is mixing atta for the rotis. A piece of that atta is given to the child so that it keeps quiet, and the child in its wonderful innocence goes on making different shapes out of that piece of atta and generally keeps itself occupied and also enjoys itself.in the process thus helping the mother complete her task.

Change of scene: This same child on the first day in school, encounters this new entity (teacher) who, walks-in to class hands over a piece of clay which very much looks like the atta which the mother had given in the kitchen. But here is the difference, while the mother had just let the child be with that piece of atta, this teacher says "Children make that piece round" and shows them how to do it. This sets the first thought into the child which can be very traumatic, it begins to wonder, "hey, I was never told to make it round at home, how come this new twist?" From that day everything that the child has learnt is contradicted with a forced thinking that this is how it should be done. Then there are various justifications given in terms of discipline, order, education, facts and what not.

Take another example: Tell a five year old to draw a line and it draws anything but a straight line, where as tell the same to a supposedly educated thinking individual, he/she will draw only a straight line!.

See how patterns have set in because of our conditioning of thinking and thinking in a particular way! So what the child has learnt through self-discovery, is changed in our education system by wrote memory. While this path of self-discovery is purely intuitive, intellect drives our thinking.

Learning is something that is experienced, it is something that happens in the 'NOW' and gives the 'WOW' feeling, while thinking is mainly driven by our past and the unknown future.

Is there some Learning?

Silence.....

OASIS



The beauty of silence when we are silent, the mind starts talking to us and it can be extremely difficult to listen to our own mind...

By Balakrishna Jayasimha




On Sunday morning we witnessed a magnificent spectacle in the sky: a complete lunar eclipse. What amazed me that morning was the absolute silence that prevailed all around, even the silence of nature. The complete silence that lasted the duration of the eclipse was indeed an amazing experience. I felt that we experience the glory and beauty of celestial grandeur only in moments of complete silence.

Today, if you look around you find that all we have around us is noise. It’s noisy in the streets, it’s noisy in the restaurants, it’s noisy on the television, it’s noisy everywhere. Even schools today teach the young to read and recite, but never to listen — not only to listen externally but also internally. We are in times when, even while working, walking, jogging or simply sitting, we have a constant companion called noise.

In fact we have reached a stage where silence is scary and hence there’s a need for noise as a constant companion.




When we are silent, the mind starts talking to us and it can be extremely difficult to listen to our own mind.

Ask yourself this question: “Will I be my best friend?”. The answer in all probability will be “no!”. That is because we are constantly self-critical.

In order to escape this self-critical person in us we find various ways not to listen to the mind.

While the self-critique in us can make us quite uncomfortable, it is the storehouse of information. It can give us an insight into how we are currently thinking and feeling.

When we become aware of our thoughts and feelings, we can go about understanding and healing the inner critique. And one of the ways we can understand and heal the inner critique is by remaining silent, by listening and experiencing everything around us, accepting the views of others, listening to the thoughts of others.

We find difficulty in following it, because as soon as we are subjected to any feedback, our defence mechanisms, built up unconsciously since childhood, spring to our apparent rescue.

When we become defenceless and operate through silence we discover a new self, a self that is happy and in sync with its surroundings. In the self that has divinity within we can find the glory and beauty of celestial grandeur.

As Rachel Naomi Remen has said: “The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. “Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention.

“A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words”.

Follow your Intuition

Article in the Deccan Herald dated 11th August, 2006.
Panorama; Oasis.

Follow your intuition


To develop intuition, we need to dig inside us rather than look outside for rationalisation. If the driving force of intelligence in the 20th century has been the head, in the dawning of the 21st century it will be the heart. The emphasis on the intellect for defining success of an individual by the modern world is out of touch with the heart-level engine or intuition today.

Following your intuition would mean following your heart, listening to your gut feeling. There might have been several times in our lives when we have felt a certain way about a certain event, but have not expressed it, and later found out that what we felt actually happened. We simply did not have the courage to express what we felt when we felt it.

Following the heart also means following the divinity within, it is listening to the divine voice within; it is listening to your feelings. When we listen to the voice within we recognise the same voice in others.


The rational thinking in us, the intellect has taken us far away from the magical world of our gut ‘feel’ and dismissed it as coincidental thoughts. The most common example being when we think of a person whom we have not met in a while and at that very moment that person either calls or arrives at our doorstep, we say “what a coincidence"! There is a thin line which separates our thoughts from intuition.

Intuition has, other than thoughts a bodily response, we experience a tingling sensation when such thoughts arise. We need to observe our bodily response when a thought arises to distinguish it as thought from intuition. Thus, to develop the intuitive faculty in us we need to go within rather than look for rationalisation from the outside. Once we develop our intuitive abilities, we also are able to recognise the inner feelings in most others – this way we understand their feelings and emotions. We often say “I understand” without actually doing so. All this requires a process of un-learning and learning again. A student asked the master, “Lead me to change master, I want to become like you”. The master looked at the pupil, and took a jar containing water lying next to him and started to pour the water into a glass which was three fourths full. The glass filled up and water started flowing out, but the master continued pouring.

The pupil said, "What are you up to master? The water is spilling out! To which the master replied, "Son, for you to accept something new, you first need to pour out all that is old!

FUNDAMENTALLY IMPORTANT LIVING.

Our Physical personality consists of the Perceiver and the actor. Our forms of perception, driven by the sense organs of Taste, Touch, Smell, Hear and See, help us understand the physical world. The actor executes the actions based on our perception.

The Emotional personality has the Feeler in us which involves handling our emotions, and the discriminatory personality has the Thinker in us that defines intellect which further branches into the gross and the subtle. The gross is involved in worldly boundaries and worldly thoughts and the subtle is the contemplator in which lies the spiritual personality.

We now live in the age of speed and instant gratification; we have everything instant starting from noodles, to messaging.

The media today constantly exposes our minds to speed. We have 15 second advertisements showing achievements which might take a lifetime and giving us a false sense of instant possibility. This has driven focus from what is fundamentally important to what is urgently important thereby causing anxiety when one discovers things do not work the way they want it to and it surely doesn’t work in 15 seconds. We begin to live on expectations from our actions which causes internal stress rather than on accepting the results of our actions.

When the mind is racing with thoughts of expectations and encounters roadblocks anxiety increases and when anxiety increases it leads to stress. Stress is therefore the speed of the mind. To reduce stress we need to decrease the speed of the mind. This is the yogic definition of stress.

So, the percolation of stress starts in the mind which affects our breathing (observe your breath in moments of anger or fear) which affects the way we look (body language in times of anger and fear) and finally affects the individual organs leading to various ailments.

When our intellect is inattentive due to external stressors the mind goes wandering, making the senses run helter skelter which causes the body to be under constant pressure and finally break.

Therefore to control the speed of the mind we need to first control our intellect which means focusing on our contemplative intellect and seek to understand the greater purpose of our journey on this planet which is fundamentally important rather than get carried away by our gross intellect making us seek temporary accomplishments which are short lived and thereby carry the message of being urgently important to do.

For a start, to reduce the speed of the mind, focus on the contemplative you and start the journey of discovery within.

Life and Life-Style….

We are frequently faced with the question “What is this life?” To understand this question we need to first distinguish between Life and ‘Life - style’. There is an overlap that we find between the two. Most of the time we think that life style and life are the same, when they are not! Life-style is associated with the external while Life is associated with the internal, which is within oneself.

We often are in the quest of looking to make our lives happy, and seek external sources to quench our thirst, in wanting to make life happy we seek from our material surroundings. We think we will be happy when we have a secure job, we will be comfortable when we have a shelter above our head. When we achieve that we are not satisfied and we look for enhancing what we have got, thinking that “this will make us happy”. We look for promotions within the job are it in position or monetary increment and we look to renovate our houses thinking the extra room or a better kitchen is what we need. Thus this spiral of wanting more which we conveniently term need leads to greed, while all the time we are still in search of that elusive happiness, which we seek within. Thus we need to understand that what we think will make us happy in life is actually our ‘Life-style’ which only provides a temporary illusion of happiness till we start wanting more.

Life on the other hand requires one to go within and live in the moment, in complete faith that one will be provided for without wanting or asking, it prompts one to learn that happiness is not a destination that we seek but the stations that you get along the path of life, being present in the moment and appreciating the thoughts in the present thereby freeing us from the thoughts of the past or the future, which leave us wanting for more.

Life teaches simplicity which no longer is a convention but an invention! ‘Life-style’ is getting caught in the outer noise! While Life is listening to the inner voice. ‘Life-style’ recognizes the one who has the most, while life supports one who needs the least.
Looking outside we dream, looking within we awaken, looking outside we analyze, looking inside we realize. We need to understand that the eyes offer sight while the heart offers insight.

The next time that you are faced with the question “What is this life”? Distinguish between ‘life – style’ and ‘life’ before looking for the answer, and seek answers from within rather than from the outside

The attitude of gratitude

“Has mankind been courteous to the bounty around him given by the provider”?

Saying a ‘Thank-You’ or ‘Please’ to another Human Being is an expression of gratitude to any favors received however small or big and recognizing the feeling behind the act.

In a similar analogy, it would be worthwhile to ponder how we express our gratitude to what Nature around us provides.

In an age of recognition of self-claimed achievement we often say “There are no free lunches”, when millions of living beings around us get just that.
We claim “Money does not grow on trees”, when in fact it does. We also claim that “Nothing comes free”, while the best things in life are for free. Take air for example.

We have developed an attitude of “What’s in it for me”? in every action of ours thereby increasing expectations. This is the voice of the EGO which translates to Edging God Out, as often quoted by spiritual masters. We should develop and attitude of “How can I help”? this is the voice of the spirit.

The saying “There is enough for everybody’s need, not for everybody’s greed”, cries for expression in today’s environment.
“I have enough of what I need”, is an attitude of gratitude.

Our own body is a great example of attitude of gratitude. Deepak Chopra in his book “The Book Of Secret’s” writes about the wisdom we already are living.

It says: You have a Higher Purpose. Every cell in your body agrees to work for the welfare of the whole. Its individual survival comes second. Selfishness is not its option.
You are in communion with the whole of life, just as a cell keeps in touch with every other cell in the body. Withdrawing or refusing to communicate is not an option.
You feel acceptance for all others as your equal, without judgment or prejudice, just as cells recognize each other as equal. Going it alone is not an option.
Your idea of efficiency is to let the flow of life bring you what you need and not what you want, remember-the cell stores only three seconds of food, it trusts in being provided for.
You are committed to giving as the source of all abundance, just as the activity of cells is giving, giving makes receiving automatic. Hoarding is not an option.

So from today thank the provider for the abundance around you, realize that life has found a way to express itself perfectly through you.

Look with-in, for that attitude of gratitude. Once you look with-in then you appreciate the with-out.

OASIS Changing the world

By Balakrishna Jayasimha
In his book “Conversations with God” for teens by Neale Donald Walsch, a question is asked, “How then can I change the World”?

In his book “Conversations with God” for teens by Neale Donald Walsch, a question is asked, “How then can I change the World”? The answer God gives is, so far all the best efforts of governments, social systems, and religions have not been able to change the most basic human behaviour, which is the reason why we still find human beings, squabbling, fighting, killing and not able to openly share and openly love. This is because all that humans do is try to change the conditions of life on the planet rather than the beliefs that have created those conditions.

Humans keep trying to change the conditions of poverty, hunger, misery, violence and war…they keep trying to make these conditions go away.

With all humanity’s supposed advancement and fancy technology, humans have not been able to eliminate these basic problems and they cannot because these conditions are reflections of beliefs that have not changed.

Our experiences, driven by our parents, teachers, and environment, might have educated us to behave in a particular way. For example: we might have been told as children by parents, teachers, friends that dogs bite or that dogs are dirty and over a period of time we believe it to be true. So when we in the present, see a dog, our belief drives a behaviour which is to either chase the dog away or get scared and run.

Unfortunately, the mind compares information it already has in store and if the response is in sync with the information in store the mind will accept it, if not it rejects. That's how beliefs become stronger and deep-rooted.

When you look at someone really old you will find that they find it very hard to change their beliefs.

However, human beings have the unparalleled capacity to choose an entirely new response simply by changing the belief that dogs are man’s best friend, thereby create a new thought, choose to offer a biscuit, driving a change in attitude and thereby adopt a brand new behaviour.

To change the conditions we need to believe first. Unfortunately we behave first, which determines our attitude which determines our thinking. We follow the reverse.

So just for today tap into your hidden potential of changing your belief system and tell yourself I'll be open to new thoughts, my attitude will not discount suggestions from others, defend my mistakes and I'll let the other person express his or her own opinions. You might discover a precious treasure hidden for long. An open mind also has a spiritual component to it. It involves looking for coincidences. No event in your life is coincidence but has a much deeper meaning to it.