Who is responsible for my suffering
They tell me that you have to cross 52 stages to get enlightened, to become a Buddha. You are almost a Buddha at stage 51 but its not perfect enlightenment. Its called near perfect enlightenment. You are awake, you are aware at stage 51 but you are not a perfect Buddha. What then is the difference between an enlightened person and a near perfect enlightened person.
Listen on or read this episode as a blog post:
https://seekingnomad.wordpress.com/2022/04/26/who-is-responsible-for-my-suffering/
Who Am I
What you can perceive is not who you are. Because what you can perceive is subject to change. What you can not perceive is the unchanging reality. That is the real you. The reality transcends time and space. The real you does not have a form, it cannot be quantified, expressed, felt, heard, seen, tasted, smelled, imagined. It does not have a name or address, color or size.
Listen on or read this episode as a blog post:
https://seekingnomad.wordpress.com/2022/03/02/who-am-i/
Language of Pain
Sugar is well, sugary. Salt is salty. But there is a difference when I eat a pie or a doughnut. Both are sweet but both have a different taste. Similarly, there is a difference between two salty treats. To complicate things a little – Say for example, two people share the same pie. Will both of them have the exact same experience of taste. Maybe one of them just does not have a sweet tooth. He will not relish the pie as well as the other person will.
Let me complicate this a little more. Let’s take examples of all of our five senses – taste, smell, sight, hearing, touch....
Listen on or read this episode as a blog post:
https://seekingnomad.wordpress.com/2021/11/11/language-of-pain/
What drives you!
What drives you – desire or suffering. Are you driven by your thoughts or do you drive your thoughts.
These are two major driving forces. Our whole lives are spent shuffling between desires and suffering. Our minds get so clouded with desires and suffering that it looses the power to think rationally. We are driven by desire or lust to achieve things which might or might not be achievable. If those things are achieved, it gives rise to false pride and if not then it gives rise to desperation and suffering. Or we are driven by the suffering which consume our minds with thoughts of desperation, fear, anger, helplessness, and so on.
Listen on or read this episode as a blog post:
https://seekingnomad.wordpress.com/2021/10/22/what-drives-you/
Irony: Why Happiness eludes us
We all are in the quest of happiness. The more we struggle for more, farther it goes out from our reach. No matter how much we gather, no matter how much we accomplish, happiness eludes us.
All our lives, we are consumed in the thought and struggle of how to gather.
Ironically, happiness lies in learning how to give up what we have gathered.
All our lives, we are consumed in complaining what we have not received.
Ironically, happiness lies in appreciating what we have received.
Listen on or read this episode as a blog post:
https://seekingnomad.wordpress.com/2021/10/17/irony-why-happiness-eludes-us/
Why is life eternal – infinitely
As a wave rises in the ocean, a universe rises in the All.
As the wave sinks again into the ocean, a universe sinks again into the All.
What is Ocean. Ocean is nothing but water. A wave that forms in the ocean is just a form. Water that forms the wave was already there. The ocean pushes itself to make the form called wave.
Similarly, the ocean represents the universe and the form is body. The universe pushes itself (the five elements – earth, water, fire, air, and space) to form a body.
Listen on or read this episode as a blog post:
https://seekingnomad.wordpress.com/2021/08/14/why-is-life-eternal-infinitely/
Body vs Mind
Body and mind are two components which complete a form. Every suffering or joy, that happens in our lives, happens at two level – Physical and mental. Sickness gives rise to physical pain. We experience pain and discomfort in the body. But at the same time, it effects our mind too.
Listen on or read this episode as a blog post: https://seekingnomad.wordpress.com/2021/06/08/body-vs-mind/
Suffering and Pain
Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
Pain is the outcome of body. Suffering is the outcome of mind.
Pain is Physical. Suffering is psychological...
Listen on or read this episode as a blog post: https://seekingnomad.wordpress.com/2021/02/05/suffering-and-pain/
Second Birth
Once a disciple asked Buddha. “Are you God. Are you an angel. Are you a messenger of God”. Buddha said “I am awake”.
The question is awakened to what or awakened from what and where....
Listen on or read this episode as a blog post: https://seekingnomad.wordpress.com/2021/01/20/second-birth/
Light in the dark.
We are living in troubled times. Not because human race is facing a threat from a pandemic. But because we are facing a threat which is even more dangerous. As this virus is much bigger and stronger. This threat is not only effecting our bodies. Its reach is deeper. It takes control of our minds and subsequently our souls. It effects the basic thread of human life, that is Humanity. This virus is...
Listen on or read this episode as a blog post: https://seekingnomad.wordpress.com/2020/12/01/light-in-the-dark/
What is Spirituality
What is spirituality? Who is a spiritual person?
Are all or any of the below statements correct:
OR...
Listen on or read this episode as a blog post: https://seekingnomad.wordpress.com/2020/11/03/spirituality-the-ultimate-truth/
Attachment to Liberation
All the great minds in history, philosophers, mystics and religions have time and again talked about de-attaching ourselves from the objects of desire. De-attach from people and things to free ourselves from the bondage to attain liberation. But how practical is this teaching, when there are loans to be paid, children to be raised along with taking care of our other duties and responsibilities towards family and society...
Listen on or read this episode as a blog post: https://seekingnomad.wordpress.com/2020/08/12/attachment-to-liberation/
Traps (of suffering)
We are all prisoners in our own bodies. Prisoners to our desires. Money, power and pleasures of the body rule our lives and not the other way round.
A trekker needs to carry bare minimum to climb the mountain. If he is carrying anything in excess to what is required, it can slow down his speed and there can come a point that he can even give up the journey unless he throws away the excess he is carrying. Similarly, our lives are built. The lesser the baggage we carry, the lesser the traps we fall into...
Listen on or read this episode as a blog post: https://seekingnomad.wordpress.com/2020/05/25/traps-of-suffering/
Where is my happiness
Where is my happiness – My happiness lies within me.
The answer to this question is very simple, very accessible but very difficult to achieve. Its within me. Its so simple and so close. Even though its so very close, are we able to grasp it. The answer is no. Why?
Listen on or read this episode as a blog post: https://seekingnomad.wordpress.com/2020/05/13/where-is-my-happiness/
Life in the times of lock down.
It is the time of reflection. What we humans are doing to nature. From the day one of lock down, birds have returned. I can hear them chirping all day long. The sky is clear with amazing sunsets. The air is as fresh as I breathe in the upper reaches of Himalayas.
I want to ask, can corona virus distinguish between races, religion, gender of the people it effects. Or does it respect the boundaries we humans have created between our lands and in turn in our hearts.
Listen on or read this episode as a blog post: https://seekingnomad.wordpress.com/2020/03/28/life-in-the-times-of-lock-down/
Sound of my heart…
O my heart take me to the place where I belong.
My body is here but my soul is there.
My heart is here but its beat is there.
Where I smell the pine and sip the spring.
Where I breathe the fragrance and touch the sky....
Listen on or read this episode as a blog post: https://seekingnomad.wordpress.com/2020/03/03/sound-of-my-heart/
Irony of life
There are a hundred windows in front of my window.
I see feasting in one window and fasting in the next
I see a baby born in one window and mourning in the next
I see celebration in one window and sickness in the next
All these windows are next to each other. Oblivious to the happenings in the next window.
They are so close yet so far...
Listen on or read this episode as a blog post: https://seekingnomad.wordpress.com/2020/02/23/irony-of-life/
Pleasures of the senses
This post is not about Yayati. You can Google and read his story. This post is about you and me, living in this defiled age. Yayati finds mention in ancient Hindu scriptures. He was a great king, loved by all and who ruled the whole world earning him the tile of “World Emperor”. Ironically, he is also remembered as a father who traded his old age with the youth of his son only to enjoy the pleasures of the senses. He spent the next one thousand years to live a life of indulgence to fulfill the pleasures of the body.
Listen on or read this episode as a blog post: https://seekingnomad.wordpress.com/2020/02/22/pleasures-of-the-senses/
After that – What
You wake up in the morning, work all day, go out with friends in the evening and have a good time. Occasionally take a break to rejuvenate and clear your head. And this routine keeps repeating day in and day out. Over and over again, for all your lives.....
Listen on or read this episode as a blog post: https://seekingnomad.wordpress.com/2020/01/20/after-that-what/
Sea of Suffering
You see what you seek. You want to rid the world of suffering and the only thing you see is a sea of suffering. Suffering all around. You want to help but don’t know where to start.
I heard a story:
Thousands of fishes were pushed by the current on the sea shore. A small boy was standing in the midst of these fishes, carefully picking up one fish at a time and throwing it back in the sea. He kept at it all day. A man watched this little boy from afar in utter amazement. He approached the boy and asked him as to what he was doing...
Listen on or read this episode as a blog post: https://seekingnomad.wordpress.com/2020/01/09/sea-of-suffering/