For those that define Harmony as the natural state of existence, or a state that we should aspire to, I have a question. :
Does the Universe not exist in constant battle between contradictory forces of Harmony and Disharmony ? Like the sunspots of the Sun, the Universe too tends to explode out of itself and then is pulled back by a contradictory force ?
Would the Universe and everything that existed in it not be completely dead and non creative if there was a continuous stable non moving state of Harmony ? And the same would go for us, in any form you may decide to see ourselves. Our consciousness, our soul, or our ‘five senses self’. The one law of creativity, of existence, of consciousness, of life itself, all that exists, or potentially exists, does so between extreme contradictions.
After all, Good can only be described in the context of Evil and vice versa. So what is that state that is one of complete acceptance (oops – here we go again in that word) which is neither good nor evil, nor moral or immoral, nor active or inactive, that is neither violent nor non- violent ? That has form but no recognizable form ? A state that defies all adjectives, nouns or verbs we can think of , a state that exists without context with anything else, that is complete within it self yet completely infinite and incomplete ?
For those that claim to have found that state which is often described as ‘nirvana (Hinduism) , or ‘shunyata’ (Buddhism) , or the eternal life (Islam and Christianity), I assume have encompassed the forces of contradiction and disharmony within themselves, battling neither, so experience themselves as the Universe and Eternity themselves. They are neither one nor the other, but part of a stillness that allows the battle to rage within. Knowing it to be an eternal battle, but able to smile upon it.
For me, I am still part of the battle, but learning that being buffeted by contradiction and giving into the contradictory forces is just the first step – the step that gives into the unknown without resistance. Or atleast active resistance, for the mind and the ego still rebels. The first step is to accept Chaos as the natural order of things, before reaching and yearning for that which is called ‘enlightenment’ or inner stillness, or whatever word and religion or philosophy chooses to use.
So forgive me if I question those that seem to emphatically KNOW. I don’t. I yearn to experience, and wonder at people that say they know. Is it mere knowledge ? Or is it experience ? Is it intellectual or is it emotional ? The only people I meet that seem to be completely comfortable with contradiction (or duality as it is commonly called) are children , who have not yet been taught to separate completely that which is imagined and that which sensed.
I see everything I write here as huge question mark. A search and questioning, and sharing that yearning with others.
Wow! you have a rich vocabulary.
There is no good and there is no bad. What appeals to our ‘personality'(ie, the junk we have accumulated)we call good and what does not we call bad.
As you put it ,”To accept chaos as the natural order of things” is admittedly a tough thing to do, thats why we are far from enlightened! We all continue to seek.
Yes- so true regarding children..no wonder they are closest to being divine.
Is all this intellectual? Or experiential? Every seekers hope is to experience. Experiencing even for a fraction of a millisecond can have a huge impact.
You said you have been seeking since being a child. How do u not know its since many lifetimes????
“one who knows doesn’t speak and one who speaks doesn’t know”
it seems you really yearn to experience …….and the first step you have already taken that is to be aware about “play of opposites”………….but even the opposites are not opposites in itself…..it is all about degree of existence…….(i guess)….it seems you are the part of battle but YOU are not…..
think in this way……….if you are going in a train ….can you feel it’s motion …..no you can’t….if you have to track its motion you’ll have to be on ground .you can measure or observe only when you are still…without motion…..because human mind can comprehend only differece not unity……..
take the leaf out of this example and feel ……that you have been observing differece or change in your surroundings….your body and even in your thoughts …………and if you are observing your thoughts then ……definitely you are not in the train of thoughts……..thoughts are moving…..and you are observing …..it means you are still …..without motion …some where……
otherwise you couldn’t observe your thought….so if you think that you are part of battle between opposites………….YOU ARE NOT…otherwise you could not observe opposite….now the question arises……that…if you are not in opposite…then why sometimes it happens you find yourself one side in the pair of opposites…..because YOU have got power of ‘identification’………mean if you are watching a film …then you may identify with any of characters …and when you identify with any of the characters you feel the pleasure and pain of the character…………….
now the issue is why this is so?…………and how to get rid of this ‘identification’?…….leave the 1st question because it won’t solve our problem…………but the 2nd is very pertinent.
now lets digress a bit…………….we all know that we have a very limited range of vision…we can’t see beyond certain range …..we can’t hear beyond a certain range…..so can we take this analogy to the realm of thinking………….that WE CAN’T EVEN THINK BEYOND CERTAIN RANGE………..if this is true then there is very serious implication that no matter how much time we invest in thinking and arguing ……………..we can’t surpass the range……….” LOGIC IS CIRCULAR”…..it is not linear……..means you are not going anywhere near conclusion ………….you are going round and round……….and round and round………till eternity.
so mind has a limit..or rather a boundary to think…..so there is no point in intelectualising ‘this’ experience’
here comes the ‘methods’…..by which we can experience ………’the unexpressable’……..
but these are infinte….and every body has a possibility to find a new one………..but even though there are some general methods to reach at the level where you can devise your own……
although………….you have taken a step ……it will continue..
vishal panday mumbai
9833067513
Is the tendency to “explode out of itself and then [be] pulled back by a contradictory force” part of Nature’s way to provide us the path of “experience” ? Is the process one of moving disharmony toward harmony or vice versa? It seems that it is one of causing everything that existed to be dead. And from a state of lifelessness, how can creativity even be imaginable?
But if the ‘itself’ has no boundaries, there can be no concept of ‘explosion’. Nor a ‘pulling back’. Nor an experience….that kills the existential child in itself. No?
Shekhar, through all the maze of “search and questioning and sharing of the yearning”, it would be nice if you could share some of your experiences….of “moments of extreme simplicity and clarity…beyond analysis and understanding, in the realm of experiencing” that you mentioned in an earlier post? It appears that you know more than you say you do. 🙂
From whatever little I know,I believe the knowledge is within us, its awakened by our experiences, and driven by our emotional and intellectual needs.
Without experience, we wont be wise .. and without the need for self-discovery, we’ll never pursue this path long enough to find answers.
Universe may look violent and conflicted, but I think its at peace with itself. To me, that is harmony. Idea of harmony is not to resolve all the conflicts, but to co-exist in conflict and still be abe to find peace within ourselves
No Mind – The Flowers Of Eternity
The mind can never be the source of bliss.
It’s a path that leads to eternal bliss.
“Bliss follows witnessing — and that is going to be your meditation. …. Whenever these two things happen — you are aware and there is no mind, no thought …”
The quantum leap from mind to no-mind…
Please contact Deepak Chopra or Chaitanya Keerti …
the simple life…
de-cluttering life
and mind
and lingo…
less words…more silence
Dear AJ,
We did come a long way towards this on IntentBlog :):
http://www.intentblog.com/archives/2008/07/showered_with_s.html
or have a look at this HQR site:
http://groups.google.com/group/holistic-quantum-relativity-hqr
And even within the Alliance of a New Humanity
this subject is coming up:
http://anhglobal.ning.com/forum/topics/why-do-we-need-to-know-our
If we know we live in a world of constant changing, we become the change we want to see in the world 🙂
Love and light 🙂
Mieke
Kahlil Gibran
‘ And he to whom worshipping is a window, to open but also to shut, has not yet visited the house of his soul whose windows are from dawn to dawn’
‘And if you would know god be not therefore a solver of riddles. Rather look about and you shall see him playing with your children’
‘No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge. The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and lovingness. If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.’
I don’t think any of us really knows anything that is …”what it really is”…hmmm let me say that again in another way,
who really knows “what is”?
and
what is…what is?
I use that phrase quite often in my plight of explaining things…but what am i really saying?
at the end of the day, which there is no real end to the day…we know next to nothing, perhaps its when we know “nothing” then there is something?
hmmm…another bunch of questions…and we could go on and on and on and on…but where will it get us?
because we know there is no right or wrong….or do we even know if ther words here are making any sense at all or not, and what is sense? judgement again…well, i could go on infinetely…and where will it get me? this is why sometimes i think it best to be
QUIET:)
so music may very well be the best communicator to what ever we are reaching for…what ever that is
because there are no words…no explaining….just listening and interrupting…but can we just listen with no words, judgements, preconceptions?
doesn’t it all come back to this moment? which by the way is already gone…hmmmm
Shekhar, I love with you…and thank you for “being” who ever you are in this moment and the next…
Cinda
Swami Vivekananda once said that only two states are possible in this “creation” – Equilibrium and Equality. Equilibrium is the creation with all its dualities. And Equality is the primordial state. Of course, “Equilibrium” state IS the creation.. and Equality is the Universal COnsciousness state.
Jaani, those who claim to experience shunyata are tripping on some very good ganja!
Chaos is soooooo not boring. Chaos and unpredictability of circumstance keeps my blood pumping and all of humankind striving for more.
To search for the opposite of chaos would be the death of us as a species. So I would leave the shunyata hunting to the authentic ganja smoking rastas amongst us or perhaps the laziest of navel gazers. I want progress of many kinds. Chaos leads me there.
Harmony to me does not seem a natural state of existence!
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If there was no dis harmony, how would we know what harmony actually means?
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Kantei na ho tho gulab ko mehsus kaise kiya jayei?
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the only natural existence is we…in us all these aspects…feelings, thoughts, dreams, vision, aspirations etc…dis harmony leads us to seek harmony or bring about harmony…if there was only harmony we would be retarded of growth as of in all spheres…mental,emotional,physical, intellectual, spiritual…
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the only state i feel, ‘I could be wrong’…the state of complete acceptance is accepting each one as a unique individual…understanding their gravity…and if you really go deeper and deeper in those twisted whirlpools you will realise, each has a reason each has a cause of his/her action,thoughts etc, we humans for one simply cannot be dealt as a ‘herd’ and we will realise then that actually we are pretending to be what we are not…and life is lost in preteding in proving in getting lost to be found within ourselves only…alas! Perhaps too late…yet not so late!!
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for example…Mjackson…gone through various forms of trauma in childhood to be surrounded by yet another kind of trauma created by us…had his reasons for doing what he did…but he went on trying to fit into the picture we made for him…and yet deep in there he knew where he belonged where he would go…he chose his mother and Diana Ross….’Two people much above his age’…what made him make a will of this kind?
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For me ‘Nirvana’ would mean…understanding yourself….finding yourself….The true you….the ‘Ultimate’ You!
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Aw!! Shekhar….I juss went on writing huh…..AhtISHoOoo
Tissue Hai kya? Chinese recycable bhi chalega!!
Eh heh!!
Harmony is an impossible dream that we all, including the universe, try to achieve even though we all know we will never achieve perfect harmony. U are in confusion bcos u assume harmony is the reason for the battle. It is the battle between harmony and disharmony that is the reason for life. U again assume that peace is the ultimate goal. The only goal of life is to struggle. We are only a miniature in the larger struggle that u mention in this universe. Nirvana or sunyata some believe is the ultimate way to achieve harmony. Others may say it is running away from the struggle, that is so so vital a reason for life. So the question for u is whether Nirvana or sunyata is a desirable objective. Plz let me know if u have an answer.
Shekhar
It is true that Universe manifests in Polarity, Everything seems to exist on a continuum from one extreme to another, and this duality is the underlying fabric of the manifested world, as it cannot function without it.
But to know the Knower, to Observe the Observer, the rules have to change, now the Knower is not interested in the known but is focussed on the one who is knowing.
The Observer is not focussed on what is being observed, but rather observation itself. When you do not forget yourself while operating in the world, you are observing the Observer, and when it becomes your priority, that everything else becomes secondary, one fine day, Eureka!! You will know that only One exists, everything else is just a concept. And this is intuitive, and not intellectual experience. It hits like a BANG!!
Intellect can be helpful, but cannot replace the actual experience, it is neither emotional nor intellectual expereience.
Before the experience something is always missing,and afterwards you know everything is OK, the “Acceptance” comes as understanding.
This is only my experience and everyone has to make their own path, those who say there is no path, it is only here and now, Accept life as it is, All these words are still concepts and nothing more than ego’s trap.
I am not saying that these words are wrong, but menu cannot replace the actual food, Unless it is your own experience, these words are just plain words.
You will know that only one can exist, either you or Self, To operate in the world Ego can be used as instrument, and then can be kept at a side when not in use.
As Saint Kabir has rightly said, jab main thha tab Hari naahin, Ab Hari hain main naahin.
As long as you try to figure it out using thoughts, it only gets more complex until it peaks and then cleanses itself. The final path is that of self-inquiry (on the subjective self, not mental inquiry) for one and all. There is no religion at that level. However, it seems that the Hindus have a monopoly on the potency of channeling this ultimate wisdom and providing gurus as high-energy dynamos and catalysts through the advaita schools.
Non-duality and non-judgement are the key philosophies to adopt at the mental level. Just like a deer is prone to eat grass, and the lion is prone to eat the deer. Chaos is not the natural order of things..in fact, it is a perfect creation. The spontaneity of childhood should be a great hint.
I have a question for shekhar, what if there is no choice between good and bad, despite one has to choose between bad to worst? Bad seems to be good in respect of worst. Every aspect is relative to some other contradictory aspect. One has no existance without other. There is no identification of good without evil and evil has no existance without good. Lets say , could u imagine a Ramayan only with Ram, Seeta, Balmiki, Dashrath and all other positive characters? Ravan however being a negative character of the saga even he has his identity as strong as Ram. and Ram needed Ravan’s existance to be identified despite of being a incarnation of God.
What brahmastra says rings solidly true for me. I had let questions like these run wild for me for a long long time. Only to come to a point where pretty much a force of realisation made me stare and answer – if there was one question you wanted to solve out of them all, which one would it be?. Call it ‘advaita’/’Self-Inquiry’ or anything but that one question which I find incredibly potent and powerful is ‘who am I’?. In sticking with that question backed with a loving eagerness I experience the dropping away of all that is false. It is not an easy one to deal with, but is the most natural one.
I don’t know what enlightenment or nirvana is. There is tons of material out there explaining how a so called ‘gnani’ experiences the creation. All of them being ‘mind interpretations’ of a supposedly ‘no-mind’ state.At best it serves for good spiritual entertainment, while creating another set of imaginary goalposts if you are not careful.
Beyond the clutter of concepts and mind can you clearly feel this undeniable need to recognise yourSelf ? Sieve it out and stick with it.
Existence is present only when there is someone to pull us.
The fight to stop is the fight to survive.
Life is present only when death is present.
Ooops I forgot this….Hey Good Morning Shekhar!
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For me theres nothing right or wrong it’s a state of mind, what could be right for me could be wrong for you…vis versa
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If I dont like something or agree to it, aint mean you stand in the same level…
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Complex minds, complex state of various orders of journey one faces…hence who sits with the ‘BIG’ pen to jot down rights n wrongs?
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End of the day, suffering caused to another human, in a vicious manner certainly makes each human rebel and stand up! This seems wrong, no second thoughts abt this!
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Psst Shekhar me in Darjeeling at present, after a wild run around few states in India…ooty se darjeeling lol…chayei peeyengei merei saath? Morning tea with mist around and birds chirping…mmMmm!!
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Sab bhool jaati hu yaha…aur fir sab yaadein chali bhi ati hai …na jaanei kyu na jaanei kyu…
Hugzz
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Hi Shekhar. You are in the process of growth.. on the path of self-exploration. There are no goalposts here. Each one is guided by his inner light and capacity to hold light. I am very fascinated by the way you write… and you write beautifully. There are enough people who praise you, so i halt. Have a nice day
I think it is condescending of people who judge your thought processes to be futile. Nor do they give a convincing explanation of the ‘harmony’ they claim to know.
In the matter of nirvana one need only listen from the realised ones, they really KNOW. Doesn’t the Gita too mention the 4 ways to nirvana ?
Of all the words here that connected with my heart the most intimately are these:
“…part of a stillness that allows the battle to rage within. Knowing it to be an eternal battle, but able to smile upon it.” Smile upon it…not fight it. I don’t like what life throws my way at times. It makes me struggle through. But there have been times of disharmony, or pain when I have also known right then and there that I am feeling a beauty with of the disharmony, the pain. Why? I think maybe because it is in those moments that I feel very alive. Not dead inside. But vibrantly alive.
We, as a part of life, surely undulate – affected by all forces, elements of the universe. Chords in music fall into two classes: concords and discords. I love disharmony in music placed among the harmony. It makes it feel more real to me, the music richer. It would feel pretentious if only harmony was concordant.
For those who use their courage and heart to be on the journey of understanding, there is a chance Life will meet itself and feel abundance if only for fleeting moments. These are my moments of harmony. Exhaling and inhaling, the tide coming in and going out, rich joy and deep hurt – opposing forces maybe not dissimilar to harmony and disharmony. I want to feel alive. In a way that I am riding high on the awareness of it. And hopefully, on the dark days I can muddle through enough so that I not let the darkness swallow me up.
From a poem I wrote ~ I Will Not Remember:
It is important that we open
ourselves
to our vast resource of emotions and passion,
and that we
give with feeling, from a soul
that has felt its depths
pushed out into
an infinite realm.
I like your open-ended approach. No one knows or has the fixed end-all answers. We can, each one, choose to take the road to journey on that is more vulnerable, one of integrity, discards the pretense and opens himself or herself to the possible hurts that others spend their whole lives pushing down, running from or denying.
I choose vulnerability. I can’t live outside of who I am inside. So, since no one has the answers that I can live by, I try to trust my own sense of what feels to fit the universe’s calling for me. That is the best that I can do.
From Harmony things originate – and find themselves in disharmony – and to Harmony return.
A child has just begun from Harmony which is why we find him so comfortable in the just beginning disharmony.
A sage is again nearing Harmony so like a child we find him also comfortable with now almost left-behind disharmony.
Just as once having separated from the beloved a lover always yearns to reunite with him/her, similarly, once having separated from Harmony we always yearn to reunite with it.
The apparent disharmony in the world should be seen in the same way as the apparent disharmony or disharmonious action of our two apparently competing feet/legs. Just as apparently they seem to try to go ahead of each other leaving the other behind but actually in the process carry us forward as a whole, similarly, our apparently disharmonious actions carry the evolutionary scheme of things of the universe as a whole forward. Having reached the destination, or any midway destination, the apparent disharmonious actions as that of a sage cease.
All the cells, tissues, organelles in our bodies too act in the same apparently disharmonious way, for, this is the very way, nay, only way, like our two apparently competing feet, which can help us as a whole to evolve/grow/move forward. (If some cells apparently cooperate with each other then they begin to compete with an other group and so on, but disharmony is yet their at the root of all forward progress).
Now, what if someday, a cell of my body, having reached a certain ripeness, was to ask “who am I?”. Certainly ‘he’ will find that he is actually Mr Harb, is actually one with all in some bigger One entity, scheme of things. Then ‘he’ will see all as the same One, or serving the same One or same One Evolutionary Scheme of Things. Then more than action, more than into becoming he will be into inaction, into Being, Being One. Since in the process he will remind all others of the same One, same Harmony, same goal, now he will be serving the same One scheme of things in this way, that is by just sitting in Harmony and acting as an example for others, as a reminder and inspiration to others as to where they all are to reach.
The experience of Harmony is like the experience of sexual orgasm on a bit concrete level and of love-at-first-sight on a bit subtle level. And also, comsumation of the experience of Harmony is like reaching love from sex if one has experienced it in the first way and reaching sex from love if one has experienced it in the second way first. So that at the end Harmony contains all physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual inputs in it.
So friend Shekhar, at the end the experience of Harmony is all-inclusive, it is physical, it is emotional, it is intellectual it is spiritual and it is even beyond all these. For, when we are in perfect Harmony we do not separate anything in compartments, we do not separate anything even from ourselves. We have awakened from the dream of mind, of words …furrrr, there is nothing, not even Harmony…For, as some wise man said, so long as one thinks one is honest one is not honest, similarly, so long as one thinks or finds oneself in harmony one is not in harmony, and when one is one does not think of it, one just is.
Harb
Shekhar, you started your blog’site’ with something so simple and smelling fresh:
‘I exist because you imagine I do’.
Where did that come from ?One could have pretty much stopped with at that. And it would not matter.
However words keep appearing on the windscreen of your experience. There is a need to put them out for the imagined outer world. A need to bounce them off. To see how they would bounce back. To constantly throw pebbles into the pool of stillness and watch the ripples. People coming here are keen to throw a few of their pebbles in as well. There are some that observe and comment on the ripples and some who see the stillness against which they appear.
Why this need?. It seems afterall you off all the people have the need to sustain the imagination that ‘you exist’, is it not Shekhar. This intimate and torrid love affair with ideas, words on the blog,in the mind, can it end, no denying it is most enjoyable!! But to whom? Who is hell bent on stamping his existence through these imprints ? Who is he reporting the success or failure of this effort to ?
whoever said harmony is about being still. harmony too is a force. and no force can be ever still. forces manifest themselves in so many variants of forms and energies. as does harmony in its variance and glory and power and superlative amazing continuum
Contradictions and disharmony are not natural- hence there is a splash and splurge of wasteful energies coping to create harmony from the tumultuous energies. Words like duality, disharmony and such are mere manifestations of things not natural. So either we rationalize the need for duality or we were yearn for stillness. neither shld be the goal- the goal has to be oneness:)boy o boy can that be a force and energy to reckon with!:)
Don’t know.