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Saturday, 28 June 08 - 10:56 PM (GMT +11:00)
By Tri-yuga das in Philosophy
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“Attachment results from choices of mental conduct.
The results of material attachment are never auspicious.”
“Trains of thought are like paths; they lead to states of being. Do not go down paths that lead to states that are not ‘useful’. If you find yourself going there, turn back”
“A Sadhu does not meditate upon the opposite sex, making money or achieving acclaim.
In all things he does his duty with detachment, focusing on pleasing the Lord.
He is satisfied with whatever living situation the Lord manifests for him.
Thus he exists in a state of transcendental flow”
“The keystone of spiritual life is going to bed early so one can rise early and practice sadhana. This leads to the awakening of spiritual intelligence - everything auspicious follows”
“Spiritual Intelligence is 'selecting thoughts and actions that lead to progress in spiritual life'. Without it, Maya floods the mind and we suffer”
“Krishna Consciousness is 'to be focused on willing Krishna’s pleasure'.
Krishna Consciousness is a liberated state.”
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Monday, 16 June 08 - 01:21 PM (GMT +11:00)
By Tri-yuga das in Philosophy
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Yesterday I got an encouraging comment from a person called Joseph. He commented that he enjoyed the article I wrote called 'Liberation from all Anxiety'. Sara also left an encouraging comment. This surprised me as I had written the article rather quickly and with little editing.
Joseph then suggested the idea of writing a book...
For a long time I have thought it would be good to have more introductory literature about Krishna Consciousness, written in a manner that appeals to contemporary thinking styles.
Anyway, I don't consider myself especially qualified, but I am always willing to give things a go. I enjoy writing and find it a nice meditation. So I thought 'what the hey... I'll give it a go!'
I plan to write a series of articles introducing various ideas within the Krishna Conscious philosophy considered from a perspective that interests me. What follows is a chapter intended to introduce future instalments. All feedback appreciated. Here goes!
THUS CONTEMPLATES THE PHILOSOPHICAL MIND
Here you are, existing. Look around you and see the world of form, energy moving according to cosmic laws. Look at your own hand and will it to move… Electrical signals fire through the maze of your nervous system, muscle fibres twitch and contract, and your fingers flex. Again, lift your gaze… The world stretches off into space all around you. Your heart is beating, your lungs draw in air, your digestive system turns food into flesh. Images, thoughts, emotions and desires flash in and out of your minds eye. Life is going on. What does it all mean?
Thus contemplates the philosophical mind.
Of course, most people are simply absorbed in the flow of life, moving hither and thither, questing for stimulation in this world of sense objects. Their minds are full of desire and worry, absorbed in the remembered past or the imagined future. So much are they caught in the flow of embodied life, reacting to the constant pushing and pulling of the world within and the world without, that they don’t have the mental space to be fascinated by the mystery of life.
Life rolls on through the passage of time, until one day, somewhere, death comes upon each of us. It is always sudden, always unexpected, for no one truly believes that it will actually happen to them. At that time, the sensation of the world fades from our awareness, and the body lies silent, a shell, a lump of the world to be reassimilated into the seemingly infinite energetic pool that is matter - ashes to ashes, dust to dust. What does it all mean? Where did that spark of life go?
Thus contemplates the philosophical mind.
Beneath all the labels, beneath the persona that we project to the world, beneath the complex muddle of ideas and plans, we are, each of us, a conscious being longing for peace and fulfilment. The world around us seeks to awaken our desire, to attract our senses. Yet upon consuming each object through the indulgence of our senses, the fulfilment that seemed promised eludes our grasp. We are still hungry. We have neither satiation nor peace.
In the mind we churn ideas. We extract every aesthetic nuance of experience and thought, yet we are still hungry. In this process of feeding the mind, of feeding the senses, will we ever reach a state of final satiation? Or will the hunger ever burn, denying us of peace and rest?
And all the while, the threat of pain looms - the anxious thought, the dark emotion, the torment of the flesh. This threat of pain causes us fear. The current experience of pain causes discomfort and unrest. Will we ever be free from pain in this life? Our bodies grow older. The machine is moving towards dis-repair and disintegration. Will we ever find lasting comfort within this body?
Thus contemplates the philosophical mind.
To be alive means to experience pleasure and pain, yet remain hungry. Life means gnawing discomfort, never to be completely relieved. Being alive means uncertainty and fear, for the future is unknown, except that death will one-day come. What does it all mean?
We could go here or there. We could strive down this path, or perhaps that other. We could serve this cause, or perhaps some other. So many options, but none seem possessed of any ultimate meaning. All things pass away, and the blowing sands of time cover all tracks. Do any of the paths before us lead to ultimate fulfilment?
Thus contemplates the philosophical mind.
The human condition confronts us. It is an existential predicament. Is there an answer to the riddle of life?
In this series of artcles we take a look at the mystery of life, exploring deep questions that have confronted conscious humanity throughout the ages. Drawing upon the ancient wisdom of India’s Vedic literature, with a special focus on Krishna Consciousness, we seek answers to questions of meaning and offer direction in the quest for ultimate fulfilment. Krishna Conscious wisdom and understanding has the power to liberate the mind, open the heart, and transform life into a joyous and eternal offering of love to the Supreme. The journey begins here.
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Sunday, 15 June 08 - 02:01 PM (GMT +11:00)
By Tri-yuga das in Philosophy
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The source of all our anxiety is our self-serving agenda.
As conditioned souls in this world we all have our own happiness as our first priority. To this end we develop many plans for future satisfaction and hope that the material energy will bring our plans into manifest experience. Unfortunately the material energy is not under our control, and thus, as much as we might will certain things to happen, we have no ultimate control.
In this way, many philosophies state that desire is the cause of suffering:
- Having desires means to seek fulfilment outside of oneself.
- In acting upon such desires we either don’t get what we want, or we do but are still not fulfilled.
- And all the while the desire generator within us keeps churning out fresh ones…
It is impossible to sit peacefully when a desire burns in the heart – it will urge us to activity, and by acting we become bound with reactions and our mind further imprinted with material conditioning in the form of remembered sensual experience, ego-conceptions, and seeds of future desire. Such is our predicament in this material world.
The Krishna Conscious philosophy deals with this reality of conditioned existence head on. Rather than attempting to extinguish the powerful pushing force of desire, we are advised to engage our desiring capacity in willing the pleasure of the Supreme Soul of existence, Krishna. This effectively takes us ‘out of ourselves’, liberating us from anxieties for our own satisfaction and happiness. By simply thinking of Krishna’s pleasure we can be liberated from all anxiety – our personal pains and pleasures are no longer even judged as such – the only consideration is our duty and service to the Lord.
This philosophy is perfect in its constitution. The challenge, as always, is in the application.
The gradual letting go of our selfish concerns for happiness and the focusing on giving pleasure to Krishna, with conviction that in doing so we will automatically experience existential fulfilment is called ‘making advancement in Krishna Consciousness’.
I have been thinking deeply about this most fundamental of points a lot lately. Life is unpredictable and precarious “like a drop of water upon a lily leaf” – at any moment we could be struck with tribulations. And as much as we become attached to our plans for future happiness, to the same degree we suffer disappointment.
Depending on ones service is the only infallible shelter in life. Service can never be taken away, even amidst the greatest upsets that life may bring. Krishna is eternally ready to accept the offerings of love made by His devotees, and by remembering our constitutional function of service to Him, our illusory anxieties can be dissolved in an instant.
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