A small story:
A man used to come home late every evening after having drunk to his heart's content. His wife asked her friend to give her some ideas, some suggestion to stop this habit in him. The friend suggested, 'Since he needs to pass through the city graveyard today, maybe you can hide yourself near the graveyard and when he comes by, you can frighten him by making some strange sounds. Then there might be a chance that out of fear of crossing the graveyard, he will not come home late. Once he starts coming home early, naturally he will not go to the bar and his drinking habit will drop. Try this technique.'
The wife decided to do what her friend had advised her to do. She prepared herself by putting on makeup, black clothes and carrying a small pot with fire, so that she could create some smoke for effect. After she was through with her preparations, she went to the graveyard and hid herself behind a stone. Soon, her husband came by. When he walked by, she jumped in front of him and started to wail, in her strange dress, with all her paraphernalia.
The man stood unperturbed looking at her. He took her hand in his, shook it and said, 'Don't you recognize me? I live with your sister!'
It is our being which gives respect to ghosts and samskaras, which are one and the same. That is why they say the ego is like a ghost. If we give it importance and value, it will be present. If we don't give it respect, it will be absent. There is a beautiful word in Sanskrit - maya. Maya is that which is not there, but poses to be as though it is there; that which is not there, but continuously appears to be there. Ghosts and samskaras are only alive as far as we are concerned. As far as our unconscious living is concerned, ghosts and samskaras are our life. In reality, they don't have any solid existence.
When we consciously decide to live our life, we start living. Life happens to us when we consciously allow it to happen. So start living life and you will see that life happens to you. Until then, you do not know the meaning of life; you do not know even the word 'life'!
The next word is 'is'. Life 'is' an eternal celebration. Life 'was' never an eternal celebration. Life 'will' never be an eternal celebration. Life 'is' an eternal celebration. We all have an idea, almost in every religion, in all philosophies - that the past was golden. In Hinduism they call it Satya Yuga. In Christianity, they call it the Garden of Eden in which Adam and Eve lived. In Buddhism, they call it the yoga of dhamma, the age of dhamma. In every religion, in every sect, in every culture, they have an idea that there was a time when life was an eternal celebration; that there was a time when everything was as it should be – ideal! Every religion, every cult has such an idea that in the distant past, 'once upon a time', things were perfect.
This idea of satya yuga, the garden of Adam and Eve, dhamma yuga, is just our idea.
Let me tell you about a small incident.
Archeologists found a stone inscription from the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia that flourished 6000 years ago in the Middle East. If one read it they would be amazed by the similarity between it and today's newspapers, today's editorials. The inscription said, 'Once upon a time, people used to be moral, people used to be disciplined. Now, no son listens to his father; wives disobey husbands, husbands are unfaithful to their wives; this is a time without morals. We need to do something to revive moral behaviour among people.' Five thousand years ago, the Hindu epic Bhagavatam says that 'Kali, the evil spirit, has entered the world. Now, a father tries to misbehave with his daughter, a mother tries to have a relationship with her son.'
There was never a time when life was heaven. Only in this instant can we make life a celebration. It was always as it is now. But we feel that life was a celebration in the past. When people reminisce, they always say, 'We had a golden childhood.' We always talk about our 'golden childhood'. Did we feel that at that time? No!
Do you know why we take photographs? Because only in photographs can we enjoy life, never when we live in those real scenes. I always find wherever we go, people continuously take photographs. I ask why they take photographs missing the real moments. But they don't understand. Then when the moment is past, they look through their album at the photographs and reminisce, 'Oh, it was so nice. We went to this place; it was so joyful. See how happy we were at that time.'
When we are actually taking the photographs, we don't enjoy the moment. I have seen that when people go sightseeing, they are so bothered about taking photographs that they never enjoy the things around them. They are so preoccupied with covering the whole place with their camera. They are continuously obsessed about taking pictures, about the correct angles to take the best pictures. Their eyes turn blind because they don't look around at things in the present and enjoy. We try to make even the present moment part of the past. We can enjoy only the past, so we let the present moment pass. We have lost the habit of enjoying the present. When we are there, we don't have the time to enjoy ourselves. When the event has passed us by, we enjoy the event as past. The mind is habituated to only enjoy the past. This is a mental habit.
Psychologists say that for nine months while in our mother's womb, we never had any responsibility, never had any work and never had to do anything. We were totally taken care of, alone, joyful, independent of all bondage and responsibilities. We were in bliss. We enjoyed our aloneness which is our true nature. That imprint, the samskara, the hangover of that period when we lived in the womb, makes us feel that the past is great. The memory of the feeling of that time makes us think that the past was great.
The past was never grand. There is a beautiful word tataka in Pali, the language of Buddha, which means 'to be at ease', meaning that only in the present can one be living. This is the only moment that can be lived. It is just our belief that the past was great; that there was a time in our lives when everything was well. If we scan that time in the past and consciously see, then we will understand that at that point in time we were much in the same mood. We always say, 'College was the best time of my life.' But when we were living it, did we say that about it?
So understand the relevance of this word. Life was never an eternal celebration. Life will never be an eternal celebration. Life is an eternal celebration. It is the present 'is' which makes us happy or sad. If one is enjoying the past or future, then realize that one is enjoying only the samskara, the hangover. One is living with a ghost. As the man said, 'Didn't you know? I have been living with your sister for so long.'
We are living with ghosts if we think the past was eternal, the past was a celebration, or the future will be a celebration. The 'isness' or thathata is lost. This is a beautiful word. When we live in the is-ness, things are totally different. To live in the is-ness we need sensitivity. We need life.
The next word is 'eternal'. Life is an eternal celebration. The word 'eternal' needs to be understood. We always understand this word as being the past, present and future, all three put together.
There is a short story from Sufism which will help us understand the meaning of the word 'eternal':
There was a Sufi master called Abdullah. He was a mystic who lived throughout his life in nithyananda - eternal bliss. He used to be continuously happy and blissful from morning to night, wherever he was. The Sufis drank wine, so even when he drank he was happy. When a person drinks we see their original face. People are all smiles and happiness till they have a drink. After a drink all their stupidity is revealed. In Buddhist or Zen monasteries, one is made to drink before one enters a monastery. By this they read one's unconsciousness,
what one is; who one is. So even when Abdullah had drunk wine, he was happy; he was in ecstasy, even his unconscious mind was in ecstasy. One day somebody asked him, 'Master how are you continuously happy? What is the technique you practice?' His reply was beautiful. He said, 'I never decide to be joyful for days in advance. When I get up in the morning, I ask myself, 'Abdullah do you want to be happy, do you want to be blissful today or do you wish to be in sadness? My mind always tells me that I want to be joyful. Then I tell myself, 'Okay, then be happy; then be joyful.' Simple! I only decide for that day, not for the next day. I never decide for eternity.'
What would we do if we were asked this question? We would decide for eternity. One may not remember tomorrow. One might reason that it might be better to decide to be eternally happy this instant. But that is not going to work. Our idea of eternity is totally different. Abdullah says, 'Everyday I decide, as soon as I wake up in the morning. I decide that today I want to be happy. I do not bother with the next day.'
People ask me two or three questions when I relate this story. The first question is, 'Master, he has no other responsibility; that is why he can afford to be happy. We have so many responsibilities, how can we be happy, blissful?'
We must understand one thing. If one starts worrying, will one's responsibilities be sorted out or taken care of ? If we think that by being worried, by being sorrowful, by being morose, we will be able to carry out our responsibilities in a better way, then we can cry as much as possible; be in sorrow as much as possible; be as miserable as one wants, but is it going to work well? Is it going to give us any solutions?
If one has ten problems, by worrying one creates the eleventh problem. I tell people to decide as soon as they wake up. When you wake up early in the morning, call yourself by your name. It is a strange thing, but when you call yourself by your name, the ghosts or samskaras with which you associate yourself get disconnected. As long as you think of yourself as 'Abdullah', you cannot call yourself 'Abdullah'. Generally, you never associate yourself with your name; you only associate yourself with samskaras or ghosts. When others call your name, it is an unconscious process, but when you call yourself by name it is a conscious process.
Gurdjieff says that for self-realization, it is the best mantra or chant. We do not know the power of our name. If ten people are sleeping in one room and one person's name is 'Ram', when you call that name the other nine will not respond; only Ram will respond. Our name penetrates through our being. If we disassociate ourselves from our name, we completely disassociate ourselves from our samskaras. So according to Abdullah, it is a powerful technique. He says, I call myself Abdullah, Abdullah, Abdullah, what do you want, joy, or sorrow and misery? When we call ourselves by our name we create distance between ourselves and our samskaras. We create an understanding that we are not our samskaras. When we understand that we are not our samskaras, half the job is done. Then ask yourself whether you want to live joyfully or in sadness and misery; after all we already know what is going to happen in the next 24 hours.
Our lives are nothing but a simple routine. The same cup, whether lifted by the left hand or right, is not going to change anything; not even the temperature of the coffee in it will be affected. We already know what our routine is. We need to give ourselves a chance to live the same routine in a mood of bliss. Then we will realize that every moment of our lives can be penetrated, can be lived in bliss.
When bliss enters our lives, it transforms…sat chit ananda. In Sanskrit they use these three words to describe the same phenomena sat means 'truth', chit means 'consciousness' and ananda means 'bliss'. When ananda occurs, the effects of truth and consciousness can be felt in our lives. When consciousness enters our lives, the effects of truth and bliss manifest themselves. When any of these enter our lives, our life is transformed. There is an alchemy that happens in our lives. Especially when one tries to live their life in ananda, when we try to penetrate our life with ananda, miraculous transformation can happen. We do not know the miracles that can be performed by living in ananda. When ananda enters, consciousness enters. In consciousness, thousands of things can happen in our lives. One should attempt living one entire day consciously.
The next thing that people ask me is, 'If my mind decides to be in misery, what should I do?' Live in misery, what is wrong with that!
Abdullah said*,* 'If my mind decides to live in misery, it is perfectly alright. It enjoys misery; that is why it decides to be in misery.' If we don't enjoy misery, we will never choose misery.
Actually, we enjoy misery and that is why we choose it. We have our own vested interest in all our diseases, in all our miseries; otherwise we would not bring them into our lives. It is our decision. We often forget that we invited misery, and we also forget how we invited it. When we fall sick, we are attended to. So the need for attention makes us feel sick. Children use this technique. If we don't give them attention, they come to us with a headache, stomach pain, or a slight fever. It is a mental habit. So if one decides to have misery, decides to have sadness, enjoy it! There is nothing wrong; it is perfectly alright. But enjoy it consciously. If we understand this story, then we will understand the meaning of the word 'eternal'. Eternal does not mean the past, present and future. Eternal means only one thing - the present. It means living in this moment which is the only thing available to us.
Abdullah said, 'I don't decide ahead for two continuous days, because if I decide for two days I will never practice it.' Decide for each day. Every morning when you wake up just ask yourself, 'Ram, what do you want? Do you want to be in sorrow, or do you want to be joyful? If your mind says, 'I want to be blissful,' then be blissful, be joyful. It is your conscious decision. Your conscious decision can work miracles.
Buddha says, 'If you drop one handful of lime in a pool of muddy, dirty water, within an hour all the dirt will settle. The water will become crystal clear.' In the same way, conscious decisions are like lime, which can clear the dirt or mud from the pool of our mind. Just add a little conscious decision and you can see the miracles done by this conscious decision. Conscious decisions can lead to the ultimate alchemy or transformation in our systems. In other words, a great transformation can take place by our conscious decisions. So 'eternal' or nithya does not mean past, present or future. Nithya means the present only, never the past or the future.
The present is nithya. If we think 'eternal' means past, present and future, we will not be able to do anything because we have no hand in the past and have no hand in the future; we have our hand only in the present. So if 'eternal' is understood as meaning the past, present and future, then we have no decision to make; we have nothing to do. If we understand 'eternal' to mean the present, only then do we have something to do. So understand, 'eternal' means present. According to Abdullah's technique, decide only for twenty-four hours, not more than that. Even that is too much! You should flow with just the moment! Then you flow with Existence!
Trust – Even If You Are Exploited