Behind every behaviour, there is an emotion
We feel good, bad, happy, anxious..
When that behaviour shows up
In us and in others
Behind those emotions is a need
Need for love, healing, power, pleasure…
When we access that need
We access the true root cause.
Then –
Instead of focusing on behaviour change
We focus on need fulfilment
We focus on the cause and not the symptom.
Wisdom Is –
To Ask:
What is the need that is driving this behaviour?
We are the stories we tell ourselves –
I am a victim
I am a survivor
I am an artist
I am an athlete
I am sufferer
I am a caregiver
I am a rebel
Once we choose the story
The story shapes us.
Let’s choose the story
We want to be shaped into.
Wisdom Is –
To know which story to choose
Compounding:
They call it the 8th wonder of the world.
What we invest today compounds over time
To become something much bigger later.
Self Knowledge also compounds
We don’t just accumulate insights
We accumulate insights over insights.
Self Inquiry when practised
Compounds in effect over time.
The journey inward is not linear.
It’s exponential.
Wisdom Is –
Practice. Practice. Practice.
I don’t want to be fearful of fear
I don’t want to be happy about happiness
I don’t want to be sad about sadness
I don’t want to be joyous about joy
I don’t want to regret regret
Buddha spoke about two arrows –
The first that life throws at us
The second which we inflict on ourselves
There is experience.
Then there is “thinking” about it.
The second arrow is avoidable.
Wisdom is –
Living through the crests & troughs
In equanimity.
The adversity paradox proposes that
We are not seeking out adversity in our lives
But when we meet it, we tend to grow from it.
Victor Frankl in his book Man’s Search for Meaning
argues that:
Its not libido that gives us meaning, as Freud states
Its not power that gives us meaning, as Alder states
It’s suffering that brings us meaning.
We get stronger from the stressors of our lives.
Suffering can break us.
Suffering can build us.
How we face suffering is perhaps one
measure of how spiritual we are.
Wisdom Is –
To grow through our suffering.
I experience thought
Hence, I am not the thought
I experience desires
Hence, I am not the desire
I experience fear
Hence, I am not my fear
I experience my senses
Hence, I am not the senses
Who is the “I” that experiences the experience
Of senses, thought, need, fear?
If these are experiences,
Who is the experiencer?
Wisdom Is –
Experiencing the I — That Experiences
Umwelt — roughly refers to the subjective experience of a particular organism.
Humans sense and feel things differently than, say, cats.
Cats can sense things that humans can’t.
The fact that our bodies and minds are not programmed to sense something doesn’t mean that the thing doesn’t exist.
It just means that the thing wasn’t historically needed for our survival.
Our senses are incomplete maps of reality.
Few amongst us –
Sense the Self.
They become Self -Aware.
They are called Mystics.
Wisdom Is –
The Mystic’s Umwelt
“Home is not where you were born.
Home is where all your attempts to escape cease.”
– Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian writer
We escape all the time
To addictions
To our fantasies
To hedonistic escapes
To spirituality sometimes
To gurus and cults
Is there a place, a being
Where we cease escaping
Feel Content. Tranquil.
That’s Home.
Wisdom is –
To know where home is.
Wisdom and foolishness are practically the same.
Both are indifferent to the opinions of the world.
– Joseph Campbell
The Self that is anchored in the Self
Doesn’t seek validation from the world.
The Self that is aware of the Self
Seeks its manifestation playfully.
The Self that is manifesting itself as art
Doesn’t seek power or popularity.
It is the Sufi Dervish
Dancing to his music.
Joyous, Transcendent, Devoted.
Wisdom Is –
To know that there is no ‘Other.’
Silence
Not the gap between two sounds.
Not the absence of noise.
Silence
That’s absolute.
Above sound and quiet.
Beyond the buzzing of thought.
Serene. Content. Still.
Silence
Observing all movement.
Yet not participating in it.
Silence
Like the movie screen, which stays still
As the movies play on it.
Wisdom is –
That silence. That Ecstasy.
