2. Cure Restlessness with Silence
We are constantly flooded with information from many sources. Our senses and mind are constantly active fueling information to our brain.
We see so many people. They can sit with others, with the TV, with the newspapers; but they can't sit by themselves. They can't spend a few minutes with themselves. This is spiritual restlessness. They can give appointment to everybody but not to themselves.
Enlightened Masters bring in this awareness in many ways. They give long gaps between words they speak. The purpose behind it is actually to bring down our feeling of spiritual restlessness. People who are not spiritually interested, people who are not mature enough to listen to these great ideas, they can never sit and listen to spiritual discourses.
This is because our mind needs stimulus continuously; it is constantly jumping from thought to thought. These thoughts are neither connected nor relevant. When we give a gap, it raises a feeling of boredom and our mind says halfway, 'let us get away.'
The mind is wonderful organ, no doubt. But, it continuously asks, waits, anticipates, and expects the next word. Why are we so comfortable in front of the TV or in the cinema? It is because so much material is simply pushed inside our being. So much stuff, so many ideas are pumped inside our being in a short time.
This leads to aggravation of restlessness. We are agitated, hyper, or deeply restless. Our habits reinforce this restlessness. When we watch TV or got o cinema, our restlessness is supported and increased. Yet, we end up feeling very comfortable.
We reinforce this behavior in many ways. Why do we enjoy spicy food? In this case, we push too many sensations on our sense organs. Our sensations heighten, get excited, and push away the intellect. Our intellect is completely by passed or hijacked.
It is the same with scratching the body. Some people are addicted to scratching. They feel comfortable and happy when they scratch. We make it a habit to flood our mind with sensations.
Several of our habits, like scratching, eating spicy food, talking, watching TV, and movies are cultivated to keep flooding information or sensation into our system. It naturally creates a deep restlessness as a side effect. If we have this deep restlessness, we cannot sit still and listen to any ideas.
Only in silence can we examine and unravel these sensations. Meditation brings in silence, a pause, in our habitual mental wanderings. Meditate everyday.
3. Know This!
If we go deep, delve deeply into any subject in academics we can become enlightened. Albert Einstein became enlightened studying Physics. Ouspensky became enlightened studying logic and mathematics.
Even if we do scientific research deeply to the very end, we can reach enlightenment. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM always says, 'If you are logically logical, you go beyond logic. That is enough.'
Ouspensky met his master George Gurdjieff in a casual way. At that time, Ouspensky was a world famous mathematician and Gurdjieff was a simple man. Some energy in Gurdjieff prompted Ouspensky to go up to him and say, 'I feel that you know something that I do not know; can you teach me?'
Gurdjieff replied, 'You are the author of the wonderful book Pentium Organ what can I teach you?' Ouspensky maintained that Gurdjieff had something that he could teach him.
Gurdjieff asked him to go to the next room and list all the things he knew and did not know so that he, Gurdjieff, could teach him the things he did not know. With pen in hand Ouspensky tried to make a list of the things he knew. He could not make the list no matter how long or how much he tried. He realized that all his knowledge was superficial and that he needed to search for a Master.
When we know that we do not know, we at least know that we do not know. When we don't know that we don't know, we don't even know that we don't know! When we don't know that we don't know, we don't search for a master. Only when we know that we don't know, we can start to know.
An enlightened Master takes us beyond logic. An enlightened Master leads us beyond words and into experience. That is the reason we search for a Master or spiritual teachings. If a man does not have a quest for spiritual teachings, we can be sure that he does not even know that he does not know. That shows that he is in deep darkness without even knowing that he is in darkness. If we have had a glimpse of light at least once, then we will know that we are in darkness. If we have not had even this glimpse, we will not even know that we live in darkness.
Only when we get a glimpse of light will we understand what type of darkness we are in. We will then start searching for a master or spiritual teachings. Be open to let the Master work on us.