One of the most sought-out experiences that all of us have is the experience of being at peace.
Being at peace inside,
Unrattled,
Confident,
Worry-less.
And we want this experience while we are working on tough problems,
When we are with our kids,
When we are simply walking on a Sunday evening.
And even while eating our meals.
Secretly all of us aspire for this.
But unfortunately,
We attribute all this to what happens outside.
Although internally we want peace,
Somehow we have attributed it or made it dependent on what happens outside.
And a few words by our spouse,
Our kids,
Our parents,
An email from our boss,
Something breaking.
All this is enough to rattle us,
Make us anxious,
Restless,
Drowning in thoughts,
Drowning in feelings.
And even when things are okay,
There is a not-so-hidden anticipation that something bad is going to happen.
Our mind and our body has become so habituated to peacelessness that even if circumstantially there is peace,
No drama,
There is an itch,
There is a mild restlessness that something is about to happen.
And if this peace is prolonged even for a few hours,
If not for a few days,
Boredom kicks in.
And unconsciously we go looking for drama.
I remember this scene from the movie Dark Knight where the Joker says,
I'm like a dog running behind a car,
I wouldn't know what to do with it if I caught it.
Somehow that's our predicament when it comes to chasing peace.
Our mind and body has become habituated to restlessness,
Anxiety,
Anger,
Unfulfillment that we deeply,
Deeply desire for peace.
And when we do find peace,
At some level we know it is short-lived,
So there is an anticipation that it's going to go away.
The deepest desire that I described that all of us have is for something long-lasting.
What we want should not be fragile and by definition anything that happens externally is going to come and go.
And even if it is,
If it stays,
It's not going to be the same.
So whatever we are looking for,
The depth and the quality to which we are looking for cannot be dependent on something that comes and goes.
What if we recognize this nature and the law of this nature that no matter what happens,
Sometimes it's going to be what I want,
Sometimes it's going to be what I absolutely don't want,
And most of the times it's going to be what I don't really care about.
Things are going to break,
People are going to say words that may not be kind,
But no matter what happens,
I can still be okay with it.
The other option is to not be okay with it and we all know where it lands us again and again.
This inner struggle that we have with not agreeing,
Not accepting,
Actively rejecting,
Fighting what has happened,
Demanding why something didn't happen,
Is a recipe for suffering,
Consistent suffering.
By now all of us have lived enough life to know this for sure that no matter what my fantasy is,
That anything that will happen cannot really take my suffering away permanently.
This cannot merely be an idea that you entertain,
It has to be a fact,
Unshakable fact of your life.
The human mind will find a way to complain,
To be unhappy,
To be unfulfilled,
Dissatisfied,
No matter what.
If today you get a billion dollars,
The most beautiful woman,
The most handsome man,
The most beautiful kids,
A royal palace,
Within a week you'll be drowning in responsibilities,
You'll be drowning in anxiety of taking care of the money.
Although we want all that,
Deep down we do know even if I get all that,
There will still be struggle.
This struggle comes from this posture,
Misplaced posture that peace is at the end of what happens,
Possibly.
And I am arguing,
Should it be that way?
One of the greatest philosophers of the last century,
Krishnamurti,
Was asked a question,
Is there one sentence which encompasses everything that you have shared in your 40,
50,
60 years of teaching?
And he said,
I don't mind what happens.
Can we release the compulsion that something,
Everything needs to happen as per our prediction,
As per our aspiration?
The only possibility of that thing happening is if we are programming a computer game where we control everything in that game.
No other possibility exists in which everything will happen according to this mind's whims and fancies.
And the good part is,
There's something always happening.
Nothing happens and stays happened.
We take an idea and keep munching on it as if that's the only thing that has happened and nothing else is happening.
Nothing is happening,
But if we open our eyes and really see,
There is something always happening.
The river of life is constantly moving.
Every time you catch yourself agreeing with the prediction of the mind that this should happen,
Know that it is merely a quest for certainty.
Nothing can be predicted for sure.
And that's the fun of every new day.
Instead of bringing yesterday,
The feelings from yesterday,
The discontentment,
Dissatisfaction,
Hurts from yesterday,
Can we be open to today?
To write this moment like every day we are sitting at the wheel,
Making a pot,
Shaping it.
Some days it'll suck.
Nothing you touch will work.
Some days you will make beautiful pots.
Some days you'll be in bed,
Sick,
Tired.
Some days you wouldn't feel like making pots.
No matter what,
At the end of the day,
The pot is destroyed.
We click pictures in our mind or with our camera as if the pot from five days ago is still alive,
But it's not.
Every day is wiped clean.
Every moment is wiped clean.
All the words I've spoken today are gone.
The good,
The bad,
All of them.
And that's okay.
There'll be new words.
All the days we have lived are dead,
Except this moment.
There's no point in keeping the dead alive.
There's no point in pretending to keep the dead alive.
What hasn't happened is not alive either.
Expecting it to unfold a certain way,
In exactly a certain way,
Is hubris.
The only way to live,
The only place to live,
The only time to live is here,
Is now.
And if you see the magic of how this tiniest slice of interaction happens,
We'll realize the perfection in it.
You can't experience a moment before.
You can't experience a moment after.
You can only experience this moment.
Projecting anything on this to happen or not happen would be stupidity.
And this is beyond our minds.
The mind has weaved a linear scale of the past and the future.
It doesn't make it true.
The only truth is this moment.
The only truth is this moment.
If we marinate in this truth about the truth,
The stronghold that we have on what should happen,
Therefore the stronghold that we have on our peace and suffering would start crumbling.
If we can deeply see this,
If we can deeply feel this,
A lot of our unnecessary suffering will start falling away.
