Teachings of Lord Buddha - Venerable Truth-1

Lord Buddha's teachings are the simplest to learn and apply as Buddhism is not a belief like other religions but founded on the enlightened experience of Gautama. Siddhrtha's enquiry started when he found the misery of life at the age of 29.

Here is the logical conclusion of Buddha expressed as 4 Venerable truths:

Truth - 1: Recognise that Life is a  Misery

Sounds very pessimistic to a common man as he finds many pleasures of life. It is very difficult to recognise this truth for those who are submerged in carnal pleasures. Think deeply for a moment about the greed, anxiety, fear, insecurity, hatred,  lust and dislike of all the people's behaviour we go through in daily life.

If you try hard you will recognise life is by default a misery with occasional sweet spots. Knowing old age, disease & death is inevitable is a good enough reason for misery. Please don't pretend that you will never die as we have all born with the death warrant on hand without date written on it.

Other Venerable truth to follow. Please digest this one before I can serve the next one.

Jai Lord Buddha
NC

Sadhguru's Wisdom - Human Syndrome

Ref: The book Encounter the Enlightened - Commentary by NC 

1. Human beings wants be happy 'some day in the future' and believe that they are not happy at 'present'. This 'some day syndrome' will never arrive. It is a good recipe for postponing our Happiness.

2. Human beings believe currently they are inadequate & empty and hence unhappy. This feeling of emptiness and inadequacy leads to finding a way of 'Gathering' thinking to fill their emptiness.

3. Human beings believe that the happiness lies in external things which will make them happy and goes on "Gathering" endlessly.

4. Hence they gather material things, people and knowledge which fulfills their physical, emotional and intellectual emptiness respectively.

5. In spite of gathering they are still not happy as the 'gathering' has no ability to ooze out happiness. Also the very gatherings themselves poses innumerable new problems. I gather an Audi car for happiness and once taken delivery, I am worried some one will scratch it - a misery generating phase.

6. Then they conclude life itself is a challenge & a problem and teach their children to prepare to face problems. The poor child goes to the World to fight like the Alexander the Great who started killing people when he was 16 and won half of this world after killing one million people. He died at 32 and his great contribution was slaughtering one million innocent people. Is it greatness? He should be called "Alexander the Great - fool".

7. This approach for happiness is called "External Mortgage" where we search for happiness through wrong means - interest paid on trouble before it is due. The gathering for misery and not for happiness.

8. The root cause of this misery starts from the belief "Happiness is in the 'future' and needs to be procured through "external objects & events"

9. External objects / people / events won't happen as per our will and something will go wrong everyday and this will rob our happiness as we have no control over them. Knowing we cannot control external situations still we try hard and become more miserable.

10. When happiness is our true nature why are we searching outside? It is like searching for a black cat in a dark room when it is not there.

Now reverse everything:

"Start with happiness & bliss which is your true nature and do things in the external world because that is all you are here for"

"Stop searching externally and turn your attention inward and you will soon realize you are the monument of joy"

The search can be 'External or Internal' - The external is in the wrong direction and internal is the right direction. Close your eyes and search inwardly and one day you will find who you are?

This process of searching is called self-realization because the deluded self needs to realize it's divinity"

Jai Gurudev

With whole of my heart

NC

Money vs Bliss

No harm in making money as many misunderstand spirituality. If you don't do that, what else you have left in life? The real issue is Thinking money will make you happy is the stupidity here.

Why people go to Himalaya for progressing spiritually is to keep away from temptation of ephemeral aspects. You may say they are fools missing the pleasures of wine & woman.

The true issue is 'Finding what is pleasure or bliss' - Pleasure causes pain later like headache & nausea after boozing. Where as Bliss has no side effect because feeling happy for no reason is bliss.

There is difference between a 'Yogi' and 'Swami' - a yogi lives in material life & realises divine where as a swami renounces everything and finds divine.
Ramakrishna Paramahansa is a 'Yogi' where as Vivekananda is a 'Swami'.

The point I am making is you don't need to stop making money but don't expect it will make you happy. It may make you 'Comfortable' not 'happy'. There are many who are 'Comfortably miserable'- They lie in water bed in insomnia.

Whole my heart
NC

Is God there? - He created us or we created Him?

This quest is there ever since nature created a thinking gadget called 'Human' since animals & plant cannot ask this question.

Someone in the US asked Swami Vivekananda the same question. He asked that person 'Why the wrist watch you are wearing has two hands moving at different pace?' The person replied, 'The person designed it that way'.

Vivekananda said, 'If you believe that a gadget like a watch has a designer, how can there be no designer for a mammoth universe we perceive?'

I am neither an atheist nor a theist but I am a 'naturalist' similar to J.Krishnamurti, if you agree for a definition like that? I think to connect dots using my sixth sense and make sense out of 'non-sense'.

Here is an anecdote for your rationale which was shared by my friend Vijay Venkatesh about a bull visiting a shop daily to worship a Shiva idol kept in the shop. Here is my commentary on this event:

This is unbelievable for a common man as he will think the bull comes in search of grass. Animals recognise divine presence much better than human as our stupid rationale robbed our innocence.

Few people learned to sleep with hundreds of poisonous snakes which never hurts them as they sense the soul in them and knows they will never hurt them. Animals never hurt someone who has no fear and love them deeply.

Alas! We are worse than this bull. One of my friends in FB gets upset when I say human are worse than animals. If we are evolved better than animal, our behaviour should prove that. What have we done to become human or born in affluent family or with fair complexion? How can we be proud of something we have not earned out of our efforts?

Think!
Thinking is the only virtue nature provided to us to redeem ourselves from the doom the mankind is taking us to. Today 40% of the GDP of World's income is spent in finding ways of destroying mankind from this planet in which a fraction can eliminate hunger from the face of this earth.

Sadguru repeatedly says in Tamil 'Atthanaikum asaipadu' which means "Desire for everything". Somebody asked him, 'Swami Ji, you are preaching for desire for everything when Buddha said desire is the root cause of misery!'

Sadguru replied 'When I said desire for everything, I did not mean aggrandising material as you do; I only meant Love everything outside you as God resides in everything including you."

This is the essence of 'God principle' preached in tons of scriptures. Don't try to search for God in temples and religious rituals as he is not there because He is hiding in a place which you will never search! That is your bosom.

Our stupid mind is always crooked to find holes in everything like finding reasons why the bull comes inside the shop? Be innocent like a child and that is all there to do in this brief period called life.

Jai Gurudev
With whole of my heart
NC

Parenting - Freedom of Choice

Parents always wanted to make all choices for their children right from their birth till the parents disappear. I remember one of my bosses used to ask his father even for taking headache pills. Thank God he was not asking permission to go to toilet!! He was 45 years old when this was happening. Let's analyse why this behaviour?

When we were toddlers, parents have to decide when to start solid food for us and the whole lots of choices on our behalf. This decision making gives a sense of authority to the parents and bloats their ego.

The problem is when we grow, they have to let go of this authority, as the child has to learn to take decisions. But the parents feel the child is incapable of making choices.

Have you not experienced your wife concluding that you are incapable of buying anything? In transactional analysis this is called critical parent behaviour.

Now Valluvar's Thirukural:

"If your child takes things that do not belong to them, it is because when you buy them things, you don’t let them chose what they want".

This Kural is self-explanatory as Valluvar indirectly says that the parents are teaching wrong attitudes inadvertently.

Please remember:
1. You should realise your child is far more smarter than you. 
2. Stop dominating them for all decisions. 
3. Allow them to make their choices even when they are 3 years old. 
4. The child learns decision making if you let go, which is the most important leadership skills. 
5. Choice of dress, food, colour etc are personal and no choice is either good or bad. Let the child choose as per their likes. 
6. Guide your child to choose right life partner but don't dominate them. 
7. If You expect that your children will listen to you for ever and everything, you are in for a big disappointment. 
Live and let live your children with freedom.

With whole of my heart. 
NC

Parenting - Learn from birds

This time when I was in Muscat my driver told me a story from Quran:

The bird which constructs its nest in the holes of the walls in the well, likes to protect its little ones falling down in the water and getting drowned till they could fly.

Till the chicks are small the mother bird flies 25 times a day to fetch food for them. But when the chicks have their wings grown sufficiently to fly, it deliberately flies 100 times to show their little ones how to fly like its mother. In other words, it is not teaching by words but 'walking the talk'. This means living by example, It encourages the little one to fly as they are ready to take off.

One fine day, the little ones take off not to return again back to their home and the mother never mourns about it but goes on with its life as its job is done. "Expecting return from your children makes the relationship a business". Never ever do that. This is the main reason the relationship between parents & child which started sweet when the little ones born, becomes sour when they grow.

From this anecdote It is evident from the nature of the beings, the children wants to follow the parents in every step of the way. "Yatha raja thatha praja" in Sanskrit means "As the King will be the people".

If you want your children to be noble, be a noble person. If you want your children to be compassionate, be a compassionate person. If you want your children to be selfless towards you, be selfless towards them first.

If you are a freak and unjust, don't expect your children to be a Buddha.

With whole of my heart
Love
NC