Me, My Guru - On life and death – III!

 Contd....

Me, My Guru - On life and death – III!

       

We ought to break our belief system.

Death is not ‘opposite’ of life. It is part and parcel of life. Death is happening to us every waking and sleeping time. We are dying with every breath. People celebrate their birthdays. Have you looked at it a little from distance?” so saying our Guru looked at all of us. We – well, most of us nodded in negative. We didn’t like to talk about death – leave alone meditating on it or thinking about it. 

But our Guru being who she was, would talk on all and sundry subjects. Most of us kept pushing this topic aside since beginning and she kept coming back to it again and again – one way or the other. We didn’t like it. It is not as if she didn’t understand that. And yet, she pushed this topic more number of times than our acceptance level. She was more adamant than us – especially in this one! I got irritated at her for this. Honestly, I was more than angry with her. So were some more!! And I am sure she knew it. And yet it didn’t affect her decision to go ahead with this topic. I mean, who talks or discusses death? 

While I was busy in my head, Rahul’s voice cut through my thoughts saying “but Guruji, how can our looking at death closely help us with our life? We are so afraid of death that all our life we are running away from it. How can you expect us to ‘look at’ death? Can you be more specific?”

Contd....

# life and death, living life, make moments count, long life, meaningful life, full of life, life, death, problems and solutions, inevitable and how to face them, suffering is optional, 

also read suggested : https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/2021/10/on-life-and-death-ii.html 

and

https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/2021/10/on-life-and-death-ii_01153322067.html 

and

https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/2021/10/on-life-and-death-ii_01211268438.html 

On post :

** Try to read the sentences marked with 'Red colour' more than once to understand them better.

Meditate on them!

"We ought to break our belief system" - Every understanding happens only when we break our 'OLD" belief system. If we keep saying "I am right, I know I am right" then with that 'adamant mindset' we can not move forward towards better clarity of thought. So we need to look into every belief system - one at a time and try to think on it. Question them. But, we can't look at them objectively until we detach from them. As long as we "OWN UP" our belief systems, we will only end up justifying them. We get angry at people who question us of our belief systems. We tend to get uncomfortable. 

Being uncomfortable is good! That shows where our 'ego' is operating from. It is painful - I agree. It is uncomfortable - I agree. But, if you want to live life fully, we need to these 'uncomfortable parts' of our selves sooner than later!

"We didn’t like to talk about death – leave alone meditating on it or thinking about it." - The issues that disturb us, makes us uncomfortable, pain us we usually push them under the carpet. We don't want to address them. We don't want to see them for they mean or for what they are! 

But, as long as we hush it up, as long as we don't look into our fear into its eyes we can never get released from it. Many times, all we have to do is look at it closely and without any filters to get released from it. 

Courage - that is the most important attitude that helps us overcome our fears. Use it. You have it. Put it to good use and become free from fears!

"But our Guru being who she was, would talk on all and sundry subjects." - Look at the words "Guru being who she was..." - now here is a person who is fearless to talk about death and we don't see her fearlessness. We don't see her as a person who has worked on her fear and overcome it. We don't see her as a person who is patiently trying to help us overcome our fear. 

Instead we 'name' her as 'being who she was' and call her names. We insult her. 

This is not about Guru of this story. This is about every person who is strong, capable, helpful, courageous - be it Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Gandhi or our every day heroes from our life - we just insult their 'strength of their character' by calling them names. Who is at loss here? We at the end. We lose one more chance to benefit from the presence and words of these 'characters' in our life. And then we keep complaining, crying and cursing God and who not for not listening to our prayers etc etc.....

think about it....

"We didn’t like it. / I got irritated at her for this. Honestly, I was more than angry with her." - Look at these sentences. They all say one thing for sure - that if someone says anything contrary to our 'belief system or comfort levels' then we get angry at them. We like people only as long as they try to please us. But the real people are those who do 'right things' for you. The genuine people say 'right things' that are good for you. They are actually being truthful to you and yet....

no, doubt, we end up being with people who exploit us, demean us, use and abuse us....and later cry out loud asking "Why are people not truthful and honest? Why is everyone cheating?"

You get what you want.....you get what you work for....

so beware.....

"Rahul’s voice cut through my thoughts saying" - and in the same world we also have people like Rahul taking every opportunity given to him. He is open to every help that comes his way. This journey is painful to him too. This journey is uncomfortable to him too. But he LOVES HIMSELF too much to live in the shit of "bad choices". He is SELFISH enough to be good to himself and work for his higher good. He is ready to undergo pain to reach a state of higher peace, understanding, happiness and respect.