Life is a long journey which we all have to go through; we have to realize our own Presence. But this journey of self discovery has to be travelled alone by ourselves. No one is going to help us. We have to raise our self by our Self. A teacher, master or guru can only support us, but he or she can do no more that this.
To realize our own Presence is to reach the level of our being. Without touching base with our being, we will not be able to experience what life is really about. By not entering into the space of being, we miss the ecstasy of being. When we raise our awareness and turn inwards to focus on our inner space, we discover that the source of all joy lies within ourselves. This is the purpose of human birth – to realize the divinity within us.
However, there are 9 obstacles in life known as maya (illusions) which divert us from our true mission in life and prevent us from experiencing our Self, our presence. They are:-
- Wealth, name & fame. In Chinese, there is a common saying “All of us arrived in this world naked and will leave the world naked”. But, even with this understanding, we continue to cling on to external wealth, name and fame. Many people spend their entire life accumulating wealth, name & fame but never really enjoy life. This is because we do not know the real wealth which is already inside us. We just have to realize it. The real wealth is to have a free inner space for creation. This is the best wealth because if we achieve this ultimate wealth with extra inner space, all problems of suffocation and sufferings created in us can be removed. We can create whatever we want in the outer world which will do good to us and humanity.
- Outer world identities. All identities such as social, racial, national, professional, religion, caste and community are just different roles and different masks we use in our day to day lives. We use one mask with our mother, a different mask with our father, a different one with our boss, spouse and so on. As long as we use the right masks with the right people, things will be fine. The moment we use the wrong mask, our ego has stepped in. As a civilisation, it is unfortunate that we have not evolved beyond racial and social identities. All xenophobia, communal terrorism and wars are because of this attachment to outer world identities. By not knowing that we are something more that the masks we wear, we get carried away and lose the whole charm of life. All we have to do is switch masks efficiently and enjoy the show. Then we become a watcher because we know that we are something beyond the mask.
- Mind, thoughts, inner chatters. We are so habituated to thinking, thinking and thinking because we believe that by thinking we are being productive and useful. This is another illusion that we are fed by society. All verbalization and visualization are thoughts which create constant restlessness within us. Restlessness leads us to engage in expanding sensual pleasure patterns in a form of desires. When the desires are not met, it leads to anger and violence. Unclutch from all thoughts and take up more Cosmic responsibility and engage in creativity is the way out of restlessness.
- Emotions, pain & pleasure. The set of opposite emotions such as pleasure & pain, gain & loss, victory & defeat, the root of these emotions are the same. It is the same sensation with 2 names. Life has both opposites – pain & pleasure are from the mind. The mind always moves from one extreme to the other. It rarely falls into the middle path as advocated by Buddha. Both are chains which are creations of our mind, you will realise that they are both temporary. They come and go like bubbles or pendulum, therefore we should treat them all as one and the same, these emotions have no influence on our consciousness.
- Inner world identities and parental conditioning – Parents form our early years of conditioning which shapes our identities. Slowly, we develop 2 identities – one known as ahankara which is the ideas we project to the outer world, mamakar is the ideas we believe about us. Our whole life is a fight between these 2 false identities we carry. The truth is our real Self is beyond these 2 identities. By resting on our Being, we experience the true Self.
- Bio-memories or patterns of suffering & irritation – It is the patterns from the society we carry that shape the body, senses and state of mind. But people sometimes misunderstand the senses as the culprit to all our sufferings. They don’t realise that if they destroy the senses without destroying the patterns, they will take another body and repeat the same things. A new body with the same mind. Pattern that wants taste creates tongue and creates taste in outer object. There is no pleasure in the outer object; it is the pattern which creates pleasure in the outer object. Our mind is societal; however, our body flows with its nature. When we work on cleansing our patterns, when we relax from death, we pass into super consciousness state. With patterns, even we are living, we constantly die every moment. Hence by working on withdrawing the patterns, it is the one and the only way to rise to higher consciousness.
- Attachment on this Body – Many of our health related disorders happen because of our attachment to this body and sense pleasures. Unconscious indulgence of the sense pleasure creates deep an attachment to the body and fear of death. The moment we have the right understanding of the utility value of this physical body, there will not be any clinging on to this perishable body-mind even at the time of death. Instead, we will use this vehicle for achievements in both the outer & inner worlds. As Krishna said “Just as we discard our clothes when they become old, so we surrender our aged bodies to assume another body.” We go beyond our limited logic and awaken our awareness that we will always continue to exist.
- Idea of Time – Day, night, morning, evening and midnight, these are just terms created by society. Time is the greatest myth we are carrying in our life. Sun moves, sun sets, moon rises, stars move, life moves, we raise, we live and we disappear. That’s all. Where is time? Time is an ultimate illusion which we need to get out!
- Idea of “I” – The idea of of ‘I’ comes from the source of everything we perceive which is what we experience as the duality. For example, in the process of seeing, the seer (consciousness) takes a jump continuously to the seen object because the seer is not able to relax into the seer itself due to restlessness. This pattern of jumping gives life to the seen and this is what is experienced as SEEING in us. If the consciousness drops its identity and dissolves into the seen, a deep devotion to Existence happens. He merges into Existence itself. The seer merges with the Universal Spirit and non-duality becomes an experience.
The above 9 obstacles are the maya (illusion) which Existence created in this whole psychodrama called life. Existence is very compassionate, while it puts humanity into illusion, it also gives solutions to liberate us from this maya. The moment you have become tired of this cycle of psychodrama, the awakening happens in you to start the seeking of Self. The way to break free from the maya is through the oldest and ultimate meditation technique called “unclutching”, a term coined by Paramahamsa Nithyananda, a living incarnation of this century. Unclutching is like a self-purifying skill, the more subtle you get, and the technique also becomes subtler till it dissolves. If you are keen to learn more about Unclutching, check out this website, Meditation Is For You. ( http://meditationisforyou.org/2012/03/be-unclutched/). Namaste.