Ring In the New Year
Years pass and years come by. Do we change at all?
Do not lose hope; please know that you can radically change any moment, if you intensely desire to say goodbye your erroneous ways.
Earnestness of desire illumines your thoughts so brightly that you will have total clarity of perception. Otherwise this wanting to change is yet another trick of an impure mind; it is another state of contradiction.
Do not mistake superficial changes in your way of living for the true change that transforms the quality of your life. A well-chosen set of rules (or vows) has its place but could suffer from serious limitations too. Even as you get on with those terrific, new dos and don’ts, the real thief hides within you conveniently and comfortably. We find, in this world, very many people whose life is much regimented. They follow a lot of good rules apparently. We do not find them really selfless. They have surely done some good ground work but then stopped somewhere. The net result is that they are hardly different from all others. Their selfish movement is subtle and sophisticated. It gets institutional protection but it does not escape God’s eyes. When people rise to certain heights in organized religion, they get much acclaim from large numbers of followers or devotees. They know in their hearts how scared they are – as ever before, if not more.
I do not mean, however, that good habits do not help. Right food, proper speech and moderation in all the areas where you tend to go a little overboard can surely facilitate a greater self-awareness which is the key to basic change within you.
How do we then miss the key? Why does self-awareness slip through our fingers as though?
We have lost true sensitivity. Our dulled mind moves within a known ambit of words, symbols and concepts. We do not realize how stuck we are with the same patterns of thoughts, however impressive they may look to (other) ignorant people. We are not letting go of our own vested interests. Consciously or otherwise, we are in the grip of some ‘ism’. We would not accept even God if He were to come in some form other than what we have conceived and concluded.
Watch your fear silently and fully, as though you had never seen such a thing before. The fear has its structure and, what is more, the self (you) has its structure too. Both are operating like good old, well-oiled machines.
“What do we do?” is a wrong question. If there is intense looking, then the right (and new) action emerges out of that perception. As long as you do not know (you have not seen) your wrong position, any action plan has no meaning. When you clearly see the basic error, a hundred previous possibilities become irrelevant right away.
This (so called) New Year, breathe in and inhale just the pure, objective truth. Do not take in fancies and superimpositions. Breathe out and exhale all your unnecessary fear and pride. Let go of your hurt. Abandon all plans for revenge or teaching someone lessons. Live in calm alertness and it will have the right impact on everybody and every situation.
Wish you Happy New Year 2007!
Swami Chidananda
Varanasi