The Point

The point is not in having more, but in being better.

The point is not in having friends more, but in being friendly.

The point is not in having love more, but in being in love.

The point is not in having money more, but in being rich.

The point is not in having health more, but in being healthy.

The point is not in having understood more, but in being understanding.

The point is not in having God, but in being Godly.

The point is not in having cared more, but being caring.

The point is not in have life more, but being alive.

The point is not in having memories more, but being memorable.

The point is not in getting stuck, but being in flow.

More than in the noun, the essence is in the verb.

More than the visible, the essential is the invisible.
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The Unity

Lost in the transient celebration of youth, and pleasure,

Among the charade of attachment and longing,

Drugged in pride, and achievements

Living that mirage, in that what we call Life,

Hidden is the truth – the ultimate fate – The Death,

Yet man tries to escape it, ignore it, forget it.

So, is solitude inherent in life.

Yet, man tries to escape it, ignore it, forget it.

Each soul, by essence is alone.

It is all transient drama of togetherness

With people and things!

The drama ends in no time.

Abruptly in one moment of stillness!

In that stillness

Is lost all the hurt, all the grudges,

All the follies, and all the achievements.

Meaningless are all the wins,

Just the loses mean of worth then,

For they had helped purifying the soul,

Realized in that silence!

Even then, in the solitude of life,

It makes a beautiful sense,

Watching myriads of people and things,

All different and unique,

Singing their own songs,

In meter and rhythm different!

Watching and listening to all,

The different strokes,

The different colors,

The different tones!

So diverse and varied,

Like colorful blossoms in the garden!

All are different,

But are tied with the One,

The invisible thread,

The thread of Love,

The thread of God,

The thread of Humanity!

Appears Life like a glittering necklace,

Worn by the most amorous damsel – The Creation!

A necklace of countless glittering diamonds,

Sparkling with enchanting shimmer,

Each is unique, each is precious,

Each belonging to a different world,

A unique and unknown world of mysteries.

But then, all are strung into that One.

The One invisible thread,

The thread of Love,

The thread of God,

The thread of Humanity!

The differences is so overwhelming,

Distracting and disturbing,

That easily I miss out the Axis,

And get deluded in the maze of countless mirages,

Lost in the world of Maya,

Garbed by the emotions

Of righteousness, hatred, pain,

And countless separations!

Then from deep inside,

That Voice of Clarity,

Beautified in Love immense,

Calls up and dispensing the deafness,

Bringing light to the dark dungeon,

Lighting up everything around,

Showing to the eyes of my heart,

The hidden Thread of Unity,

The thread of Love,

The thread of God,

The thread of Humanity!

All of us are islands perennially alone -

Lonely souls in the Ocean of life.

But the Ocean embraces us all!

That One Intimate Ocean,

The Ocean of Love,
The Ocean of God,

The Ocean of Humanity!

We are all One,

Reflecting the same Unity,

In different forms and shapes,

In different colors and creed,

In different sounds and symphony!

I choose not to get stuck,

In people, things and events!

For they dis-integrate my inner self,

And distort my vision.

One-sighted am I to the binding Unity,

To the Love, God and Humanity!
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Meister Echart take on Being and Freedom

Meister Eckhart says we should be free from our own things and our own actions, to be really free in this world. This does not mean that we should neither possess anything nor do anything; it means we should not be bound, tied, chained to what we own and what we have, not even to God. 

Eckhart approaches the problem of having on another level when he discusses the relation between possession and freedom. Human freedom is restricted to the extent to which we are bound to possession, our works and lastly to our own egos. By being bound to our egos, we stand in our own way and are blocked from bearing fruit, from realizing ourselves fully. Freedom as a condition of true productivity is nothing bud giving up one's ego, as love is free from all egoboundedness. Freedom in the sense of being unfettered, free from craving for holding onto things and one's ego, is the condition for love and for productive being. Our human aim according to Eckhart is to get rid of the fetters of egoboundedness, egocentricity, that is to say the having mode of existence, in order to arrive to full being. 

In the having mode of existence what matters is not the various objects of having, but our whole human attitude. Everything and anything can become an object of craving: things we use in daily life, property, rituals, good deeds, knowledge, and thoughts. While they are not in themselves bad, they become bad; that is, when we hold onto them, when they become chains that interfere with our freedom, they block our self realization.

Eckhart uses "Being" in two following different though related meanings - 

1. Being denotes the real and often unconscious motivations that impel human beings, in contrast to deeds and opinions as such and separated from the acting and thinking person. He says, "People should not consider so much what they are to "do" as what they "are"...Thus take care that your emphasis is laid on being good and not on the number or kind of things to be done. Emphasize rather the fundamentals on which your work rests." Our being is the reality, the spirit that moves us, the character that impels our behaviour; in contrast, the deeds or opinions that are separated from our dynamic core have no reality. 

2. The second meaning is wider and more fundamental: being is life, activity, birth, renewal, outpouring, flowing out, productivity. In this sense, being is the opposite of having, of egoboundedness and egotism. Being, to Eckhart, means to be active in the classic sense of productive expression of one's human powers, not in the modern sense of being busy. Activity to him means "to go out of oneself", which he expresses in many word pictures: he calls being a process of "boiling", of "giving birth", something that "flows and flows in itself and beyond itself." Sometimes he uses the symbol of running in order to indicate the active character: "Run into peace! The man who is in the state of running, of continuous running into peace is a heavenly man. He continually runs and moves and seeks peace in running." Another definition of activity is : The active, alive man is like a "vessel that grows as it is filled and will never be full". 

In Eckhart's ethical system the supreme virtue is the state of productive inner activity, for which the premise is overcoming of all forms of egoboundedness and cravings.

(PS - This article is taken from the chapter 3 of the book - To Have or to Be, by Erich Fromm. The point 1 and 2 above are critical. Just by going with the point 1, one might mistake the state of being as a state of inaction. One might go the wrong way of detaching oneself from the material world of activity. The second point completes the state of Being, beautifully. It is not about detaching from the world of action. But it is about using action, to escape from one's egoboundedness and craving of having. One needs to remind oneself is that being in a state of  inaction, is not the state of being. It is a dead state of mind, where one is stuck with a given set of beliefs and biases. Such a state is also another manifestation of Having - this time a bit more dangerous and camouflaged. 

So, it is nothing wrong in having more, or doing more. It is neither bad to have less, and to have done less. But the point is about going beyond the attachment and boundedness with one's having and doing domains. The point is about being in spontaneous activity to be able to affirm who one really is - one's true self. This activity might be anything, and has to be free from the hidden agenda to have or accomplish something. It is just a process. It is interesting to remind oneself, similar thought expressed by Krishna in the Bhagavat Gita. The point is not how much you have in your plate. But whether you are able to experience Beingness, through freedom, love, productivity, expressing your real self. This state of one's being is related to be being one with God by the ancients. Bhagavat Gita talks about this state of beingness as the state of Sattva. I have discussed this in my earlier article - http://criativ-mind.blogspot.in/2012/06/on-action-and-law.html)

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On Action and the Law

Dharma is the Omnipresent law, the Archetype, the ideal. Dharma is the Way. Karma is the vehicle to tread the way. It is the means to be one with Dharma. It is the manifested dharma. If dharma is the order, karma is what keeps it alive. 

Karma exists in 3 fold manifestations - the knower, the knowledge, and the known. All these three dimensions of karma can exist in the following 3 climates or temperaments - Rajas, Sattva, and Tamas. 

Following words try to express the feel of Rajas: 

Plurality, analysis, individuality, separation, alienation, arrogance, fear, stress, anger, nervousness, anxiety, restlessness, disbelief, meanness, stinginess, prejudice, go getter, material efficiency. 

Following try to explain what constitute the Tamas: 

Attachment to an individual, lust, attachment to having something or somebody, indulgence, laziness, driven by baser instincts, attachment to results, to profits, helplessness on the face of obstacles, rationalization, over intellectualization, delusion, inactivity, habit 

Sattva stands for unity, integration, non attachment to the material manifest, one sighted concentration on the Archetype, the Dharma, the Ideal. From this vantage point all the three constituencies of Karma, viz - Knowledge, knower, and the known are considered as a way to be one with "Krishna" – the invisible Ideal – The Truth – The Source. From this standpoint every moment of existence becomes a worship. The action or the outcome of the action per se loses its importance. What is primary is the process of being in the act to be able to "see" the invisible in all the three material constituents - the knower, the known and the knowledge. 

Life is an opportunity to practice Sattva every moment of being alive. It is about living in touch with one’s sense of Being, instead of Having. Both Tamas and Rajas are flavors based on the mode of “having” 

It is easy to be swept in the delusion of having something or somebody. The way media, society and the world around imposes its noise on our minds, It is very easy to fall in the trap of the rat race of searching one’s self worth, one’s identity, in the form of one’s possession of power, knowledge, education, a lucrative job, profits, deals, relationships, etc. Not much attention is given to Be. Even if someone is giving a passing thought into one’s being, it is always weighed against what he shall “have”, out of “being” that. So, a person would prefer reading a book, if one is convinced that it would help one at work, and everyday living, manipulating life and people to achieve one’s own end. Or others might want to read, to have a stint of fantasy, to escape from one’s own reality. Not much thought is given to just Being. 

The state of Being is mostly misunderstood as the state of inaction. Rather it is quite contrary. The state of being is actually as state of immense internal and external activity, which helps a person to express out who she really is. It is a journey to discover one’s real self. It is a journey of self analysis to know one’s own self, the life, and the world around. It is a life lived in deep contemplation observing and knowing life. It is about being in that profound gratitude and appreciation of the creation and grandeur of nature. It is about trying to solve the mystery of one’s own existence. 

Being is what remains with man – his increases awareness, his growing respect of life and people, his enhanced capacity to love, his enlarged soul and heart, his resolution to stay with the Dharma, love, peace and harmony – no matter what. Being is that immortal sheen on one’s soul that transcends one’s life. It continues to be in this creation long after the body ceases to exist. After 2500 years of the death of the prince Siddhartha, the shine of his Being still is so young and relevant in this world. Same is the case of Beethoven, Dickens, Shakespeare, Blake, Mozart, Michelangelo, Jesus, and hundreds of masters who have made their being sublime in their lifetimes. Certainly no matter what they had, has all perished away. Nature and life has not even a passing awareness of them. But it was their Being which has remained timeless. 

Today is the world of markets. It is the world of business, of industry, of capitalism. Capital is the God. It is not for wellbeing, man wants capital. But it is for capital, one needs more capital. Capital is no more just a means. But it has become an end to itself. Everything is measures in the backdrop of its salability. Even before taking up a hobby, it runs out in the mind of man, on the aspect of its salability to the society. Today, in the shelves of the best sellers, you see books which worship the men who “have” – in the form of power, capital, prestige, knowledge, or any other such forms of getting more capital in return. Unconsciously man has started measuring his own worth based on this skewed scale. 

But, remembering the ageless wisdom of the Vedas, if we practice the Sattvik form of living - a living based on the way of being, life becomes a beautiful play of discovery and enchantment.

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