Attempting to assert its dominion through its ‘knowledge’ of the world, while operating under the illusion of its separation from the world, the mind has blindfolded itself and tied its own hands behind its back. Even then, the mind offers its perceptions and judgement as infallible.
Having divorced reality due to its craving for authority, our mind constructs models of what it imagines reality to be, based on its observations, previous experience, education and conditioning, and relies on these models to conduct its life and interactions with the world. No matter how smart, vast, brilliant or intelligent our mind, whatever model it sets up and relates to as ‘the world’ can never be the full picture, never the actual world.
We observed the world to be flat, believed it so, and lived in accordance with that model. Now most believe the world to be spherical, and we live and operate in accordance with this model. There might come a time when we postulate the world to be neither flat nor spherical, but an amalgam of multiple dimensions. We will then need to adapt to that new paradigm.
Newton’s laws of physics were superseded by Einstein, then by quantum physics and now by ever-new theories. All that we once assumed to be fixed and solid – time, space, matter, light – are no longer so. Time is relative, the past and future are one. Light bends, speeds up, slows down. A solid wall is mostly empty space. It is solid only as long as we think, and believe so. Knowing the wall is not solid, a yogi walks straight through it.
Only in our heart’s oneness with reality, can we know reality.
Meanwhile, relying on our minds’ knowledge, everything we think we know, we actually don’t.
What we think we know is a constantly shifting assortment of opinions, assumptions, inferences, prejudices, educated guesses and stabs in the dark.
The knowledge we think we know, is inside the box of our mind. Reality is infinite and indivisible.
The mind, being itself a finite instrument, can never grasp or comprehend the infinite. The finite can only ever hope to grasp and define the finite. To be a finite speck in an infinite universe is a lonely, insecure, even frightening existence. To overcome its inherent insecurity, our mind desperately wants to assert its dominion over the world around it. To assert itself, it must first separate itself from the world, separate the knower from the known. Like a turkey burying its head in the sand, in order to ‘know’ reality, our mind pretends reality to be finite, which is an absurd denial of the indivisible infinite. Most of what the mind thinks it knows, is derived from this essential denial of truth.
Our mind is a tiny sealed box, floating in the ocean of the infinite, oblivious to the ocean in which it floats. It is the frog who, having lived all its life in the well, asserts that there is no universe outside of its little well.
There can be no superiority and inferiority without division. To prove oneself superior, one must establish one’s differences from the inferior. Our mind can never know reality, for it sets itself (the knower) apart from reality (the known) – or from what it supposes to be the known. Relying on the falsehood of division, the mind can never own the known, let alone the unknown and the unknowable.
We convey much about ourselves, by our attitude to a rainy day.
To complain about the rain is a pervasive pastime: and yet, we cannot live without rain. Rain is the source of life, bringer of nourishment, richness, fulfilment, diversity, abundance. Rain sustains, soothes, cleanses, refreshes, replenishes, energises and inspires us. In the spiritual life, rain symbolises divine blessings. Rain embodies and evokes the spiritual qualities of forgiveness, grace, compassion, love, concern, kindness, gratitude. Rain is conducive to meditation, awakening and illumining our consciousness, if we accept it gratefully.
So why would we complain about rain? Why bite the hand that feeds us so lavishly, generously and unconditionally?
A happy heart never complains, for happiness is its own reward, its own fulfilment. A happy heart shines upon the world around it, seeing blessings and opportunities everywhere. An unhappy mind seeks ever to complain, for in finding fault with the world and outer circumstances, the mind has a scapegoat to blame for its perpetual unhappiness, a punching bag onto which to project its own frustrating inadequacy.
The unhappy mind is a magnet for the negative, seemingly generating obstacles and problems out of thin air. Thus, the mind sees only the negative in a rainy day: the cancelled outdoor activities, traffic delays, slippery surfaces and soaked socks.
Rain threatens our dry mind; and is embraced by our flowing heart.
Our mind is certain in its fixity, while our heart thrives in spontaneity. Rain is beyond our mind’s control: rain interrupts our fixed plans, unbalances our mind’s certainty and frustrates its supremacy. Once our mind’s plans have been dashed, our heart’s spontaneity has an opening, an opportunity to blossom.
Now we know: every rainy day is a barometer of our healthy mind and happy heart.
You have lived in the same house all your life. You own the house and the land it sits on.
One day, a geologist comes to your door, with some interesting news. He says: “We have been conducting geological tests and surveys, using advanced technologies, mapping the geological composition of all the land in this region, including identifying the prevalence of minerals in the area. It is my pleasure to inform you, that the land under your feet, precisely the plot that you own, contains the richest deposit of gold ever located in the history of the world. It is impossible to calculate its worth: its value would run into trillions of dollars.”
He gives further technical details of other minerals in the area, shows you a few maps and spreadsheets, and offers some explanation as to how such a rich concentration of gold might have formed in precisely this locale.
With that the geologist shakes your hand by way of congratulation, leaves his card in case you might need his services in future, bids his farewell and goes on his way.
You are alone again. You go back inside, to resume whatever it is you had been doing prior to the geologist’s arrival.
But you cannot. Whatever it is you were doing, no longer has any appeal. Something has changed. Everything has changed. The view outside your window has changed. Your life, which had been so well established in its routines and habits, is suddenly empty, insufficient, incomplete.
You are sitting on untold treasure of inestimable value. It has been under your feet this whole time, your entire life.
There is no going back. You gaze at the charts the geologist left with you. Their story is clear. The question is staring at you:
Soon you will have breathed out all the restlessness, all the stress and tension that you had been harbouring within you. Offloading these stolen goods, creates more space throughout your being so you can breathe in even more peace. Breathing in peace creates room for ever more peace.
Now you are breathing in peace and breathing out peace, your breath is a cycle, a continuum of flowing, growing, glowing peace. There is peace within you, above, below and all around. You are saturated with peace. Every cell of your being, every thought, every feeling is peace. You are swimming in the sea of peace, beginningless and endless.
You are the ocean of peace. On the surface of the sea sometimes there will be waves, sometimes there may even be a storm. No matter what is happening on the surface, in the depths of the ocean is always profound peace.
Your thoughts are the waves, your emotions the storm surges on the surface of the sea, but you are the very depths of the ocean, you are the vast silent profundity of the ocean’s infinite, eternal peace.
In the very depths of your ocean there is a cave where you keep all of your spiritual wealth. Now all the peace that you have breathed in, pour it carefully into that cave. Then, tomorrow or the next day when you need some peace in your outer life, you know precisely where to find it.
Now, take three final breaths to consolidate the peace that you have breathed in, taking care it is all safe inside your secret cave. Then when you’re ready, open your eyes.
Continue to sit quietly for a few minutes. Now you are ready to face, embrace and fully live your day.
Sit somewhere you can be alone, silent and undisturbed. Wear loose, comfortable clothing, so you can be physically relaxed, while sitting straight and still: calm, alert, in control.
Close your eyes and dive into your life-breath. If we practise breathing regularly, then whenever we dive into our breath, we have the feeling of returning home, to where we belong. Nothing else exists, nothing else matters.
Now please imagine that what you are breathing in from the atmosphere around you is not air, but solid peace. And you are breathing in this peace not only through your nostrils, but through your eyes, your ears, through the very pores of your skin. It is as though inside, you are a dry sponge and you are just soaking up this peace directly into your very core. And slowly but surely this peace is circulating right throughout your being from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet to the very tips of your fingers.
And as you breathe out you will release anything within you which is not peace. If there is tension in your muscles, anywhere in your body, let that tension go, release it and breathe it out. Any restlessness in your nerves or emotions, soothe it and breathe it out. Any stress that is tying your mind in knots, unravel it, let it go and breathe it out.
Stress and tension are not our possessions. They are stolen goods. We have no right to hold onto anything which is not our possession. So all these stolen goods, this foreign stress and tension, let it go, let it flow out the window, up and out into the sky, where it dissipates and evaporates without a trace, never to return.
These days, everyone is an expert on meditation. Everyone has views, thoughts and opinions. Everyone, it seems, has read books on meditation; attended lectures, seminars and retreats; listened to podcasts; watched YouTube videos; listened to meditation music playlists; talked with their friends and thought a lot about meditation.
But how many actually meditate? How many yearn with intense longing to utterly silence the mind? How many shed streaming inner tears to fly into the bliss-flooded sunlit vastness of the heart?
Meditation will absolutely answer all our life’s questions; unfailingly solve all our life’s problems; and reliably help us fulfil all our life’s dreams and highest goals… on one condition: that we do it, we actually practise meditation, regularly, sincerely, ardently and devotedly. If we want meditation to give us everything – to answer all our questions, solve our problems and fulfil our dreams, then we must in turn be prepared to give all our heart to our meditation. We must take it seriously and soulfully. We must love it and live it.
Meditation is self-discovery. Discovering yourself can never be theoretical. You are not a theory. You are real.
Someone else’s advice can inspire you or guide you – but only you can walk the path within, to your own heart and soul. Only you can live your inner life; only you can survey your own unique inner landscape; only you can breathe the exquisite fragrance of your own heart-garden; only you can unveil the brilliance and clarity of your own soul’s light; only you can fulfill your life’s destiny; only you can come face to face with God in the form God has adopted just for you.
Knowledge and theories are useless, without practise. Only practise yields experience; only experience yields realisation; and only realisation is real.
A sheep could not eat meat even if it tried, while a lion would perish on a diet of grass. Each to their own.
Each of us is a unique soul, each with our own sacred mission, our own life’s purpose and divine destiny.
The pressure on us to conform, to adapt ourselves to fit in with the behaviour and expectations of others, comes both from around and within us.
Our family, friends and colleagues usually have their own ideas about what we should aspire for and how we should behave, according to their own worldview. It is inevitable that we feel influenced by the desires and opinions of others, especially when these come from people we admire, depend on or fear.
Yet until we know who we are, we can never be happy and fulfilled. What if we are not sure if we are lion or sheep? How should we behave?
Because we are not happy or fulfilled, we choose to conform with others’ expectations out of uncertainty, fear or insecurity, or we imitate others, especially those we perceive as being successful or popular, or we seek to define ourselves in rebellion against the family or society which has not gifted us happiness. Most often, rebellion brings us to the same destination as conformity: disappointment and frustration.
Because our soul is the source of happiness, only in fulfilling our soul’s purpose can we be happy.
Only in meditation can we discover the purpose of our soul and the path to fulfill our soul, the path to happiness.
In meditation, the brightness and clarity of our soul disperses the fog of our uncertainty and guides us out of the labyrinth of society’s expectations.
Only once we know ourselves, can we be true to ourselves. So – meditate.
You are focusing on your breath. Our planet earth is inside your heart, and your breath is entering into, sustaining and nourishing the planet.
Please feel that what you are breathing in is not only oxygen and energy. What you are breathing in is entering into the breath, the hearts and the lives of all beings. While breathing, you can choose what qualities you will inhale. Imagine one quality that you might breathe in now, that will flow into the hearts and lives of all, that might improve the conditions of life. Imagine one quality that you might breathe in to ease the world’s pain, one quality that you might breathe in to make our world more perfect.
Please choose three qualities which you feel our world needs most urgently right now. And as the world is inside your heart, please consciously, deliberately and carefully breathe in each of these qualities one after the other. As you breathe in these qualities, they flow with your breath into the breath of all, into the hearts of all, into the lives of all – and life on earth is gradually transformed.
Like the gradual unfolding of a flower from a closed bud, watch as each petal slowly unfurls to reveal its own unimaginable beauty and release its exquisite fragrance. Watch and observe, as little by little, breath after breath, this blossoming flower, our world inside your heart, is gradually beautified, brightened and perfected.
Only when we accept the world as our very own, on the strength of our inseparable oneness-breath with the world, can we eventually transform the world – starting in our hearts’ inner imagination, which must ultimately flow into our outer life as well, blossoming into ever more fragrant, ever more radiant, ever more perfect perfection.
Our atmosphere is a very thin, delicate film blanketing the surface of our planet. And from this thin, fragile film of atmosphere not only all the people, but all the animals, the birds, plants and trees, all are breathing their breaths, all are drawing their oxygen, their life-force. We are all together, one life, one living being breathing the same air, drinking the same water, basking in the same sunlight. We cannot separate ourselves from all other life forms – for we cannot separate ourselves from our own breath.
Now please imagine that the whole universe is inside your heart, and there in its very centre, sits our planet, our earth-home. This beautiful blue globe is slowly revolving in space in the silent depths of your being. Because the world is inside your heart, you are responsible for the world, it is in your care – so call forth all your heart’s love, protective concern and nurturing goodwill, as you would if you were given the care of an adorable, beautiful, innocent child.
The breath you are breathing is entering into the very heart, the very core of the planet inside your heart. With your breath you are nurturing and nourishing the world itself. As you breathe in, all the people, all the animals, the plants, the trees, the birds and the insects, all are breathing in together. And as you breathe out, all the people, the animals, the plants, the insects, the birds and the trees exhale as one.
Your breath is flowing into and becoming the life-breath, sustaining the life of all living beings.
You are breathing on behalf of life itself. So your every breath is supremely significant, for if you would stop breathing, all life on earth would cease.
Sit still, comfortably with your spine straight, in a quiet place where you can be undisturbed, preferably in silence.
Close your eyes. Bring all your attention to the simple, gentle slow dance rhythm which is your breath. Focus with all your being on that beautiful, subtle, delicate flow of air in and out through your nostrils. Make that flow so gentle, so calm, that if a tiny thread like a gossamer spider’s web, happened to be dangling in front of your nose, that thread would remain perfectly still, oblivious to the flow of breath passing on either side of it while breathing in, breathing out. Picture that thread now, and observe it closely, to be sure it is absolutely motionless.
Our breath represents our life. Our breath connects us with the cosmic energy, the universal force which sustains all life. And something more: our breath carries with it a profound spiritual message – the message of oneness.
In any room full of people, all together are breathing the same air. The air one person breathes out in one moment is the same air another will inhale the next moment, and vice versa.
No matter what are the differences, divergences and disagreements between all the individuals in a room, the air being breathed by all connects them, each to each and to all the others in the physical, tangible world, unavoidably. The people in the room are like one organism breathing one breath through many sets of lungs.
Now let us expand our vision beyond this room and include the entire world. All of us, in all of the countries on all of the continents, from all races, all languages, faiths and beliefs, rich and poor alike, are all breathing from the same atmosphere.
His young children call him Daddy, knowing him as the benevolent giver of gifts and indulgences. His grown-up children from his first marriage call him Dad or Pops, while their own children call him Grandad, or Ompee.
His siblings call him Flim, the mischievous child who was constantly playing pranks on them. His mother still calls him Benjie, the name she had wanted him to have, after her childhood dog.
His schoolfriends still know him as Brownsie, the brilliant football player who captained the championship winning team of ‘86. The players from opposing teams from those days had other names for him, which we shall not repeat.
His wife affectionately calls him Chittles, a name only she knows the meaning of. When not in an affectionate mood, she calls him Derek – only she and he know why. And in public, she calls him Eric Dear.
When he goes out for his morning jog, the kids who play skittles in the park mock him as “SlowJoe”.
Online, he is known by various names and handles, depending on the forum – punter68, E_C_Brown_MP, erik-dragonslayer, legend_of_86, to cite a few.
With a PhD in political science, he is sometimes called Dr Brown.
Most of his staff call him Sir, though those who have been with him since the beginning, use Eric.
In Parliament, Mr Brown is called The Honourable Member for Pickworth South, except when Opposition members are hurling insults at him, and then he is called many names, which are also seen on placards and heard in chants at protests and rallies.
Senior public servants secretly call him Dr Dolittle.
Outside Parliament, most respectful people call him Prime Minister.
So many names and personae – real, presumed, suspected and projected – yet Mr Brown – like God – is one.
Running and meditation are the simplest, most natural of activities. We are born with everything needed: other than running shoes and a mat, neither require any equipment, talent, cost, travel, study, qualifications or rules. Both can be done alone, virtually anywhere and anytime. Both test and develop our inner sincerity, concentration, determination, humility, confidence, dedication, discipline, eagerness, faith, fortitude and surrender. There is no way in either running or meditation to bend the rules or fudge the results; they are the most egalitarian and honest of pursuits. The satisfaction we gain from them is not dependent on results or outer criteria. We derive from each, according to how much of ourselves we offer.
Running can be meditation if we want and need it to be, and if we bring all our focus and concentration to the process of running. The rhythms of running can be mantras in themselves – the cadences of our heartbeat, breathing, footfalls, the swing of our arms and stride. While running, we are microcosms of the macrocosm, our rhythms mirroring the eternal cycles of Nature, the rise and fall of the waves, the turn of the tides, the diurnal, lunar and seasonal cycles, all the way to the evolution and dissolution of our universe. Running offers a perfect opportunity to meditate on and attune ourselves with these deeper realities, easily drawing us out of our habitual petty preoccupations.
Meditation is a spiritual experience of running; while running is a physical expression of meditation.
We cry for self-transcendence: so, we both run and meditate. Transcendence means not just improving our performance or deepening our experience, but also improving our attitudes, our ability to deal with challenges and situations, expanding our hearts and broadening our minds, deepening our understanding of ourselves, our universe and God.
