Journey to Enlightenment Part 01

Author(s): Chitrabhanu, Chetana Catherine Florida, Nirmala Hanke, Raksha Penni Helsene
Publisher: Create Space

Page 109

September 1997: The Freedom of Choice
Dear Friends:
The philosophy of Jain Dharma does not build our life on the past but on the living present. To me, a good life is a healthy loving life. A good life is a creative life. It is that life where we come to the awareness that we can choose what we want to choose and make the choice to accept and let go of the dead past and live in the living present.
If we don't let go of the past, we cannot move forward. I am reminded of two friends in India who decided to cross the Ganges River by boat in Benares. They were drinking bhang, a stimulant and were feeling energetic because of intoxication and the beautiful full moon. They decided to row across the river to another town to get good food. The whole night they rowed and rowed. But when it was dawn, they saw people on the shore, who looked like the people from the night before. One of them said, “This place looks exactly like Benares.” So, they stepped ashore and asked, "Where are we?” They were told that they were in Benares. “Benares? But how can that be? We have been rowing and rowing the whole night.” Only then did they find out that in their intoxication they had forgotten to untie the rope from the jetty. The rope was over 200 feet long, so they had moved from here to there but had not gone anywhere. This sounds funny, but what about us? We want to move forward, but we don't untie ourselves from the anchoring past habits and beliefs. Whenever we talk, we talk about the past and go on playing the old worn-out record. Even in therapy for years, our mind roams in the empty rooms of past phantoms. Clinging to the past dogmas, we turn from a plum to a prune.
Mahavir said, “Don't go anywhere; go to your power within.” Ask yourself: “Who am I and what is my power? How do I see myself? Why do I not do what I want to do? Why do I not choose the right things? Do I allow others to tell me what I can and cannot do?” Remind yourself that others are only projecting themselves onto you. What they say does not reflect you; it reflects them. If they deny certain things, they are not denying you; they are denying themselves. Their statements do not apply to you.
Several years ago, several students from the United States came to India with us and visited Shatrunjaya in Palitana. In this group there were two people who were trying to come to terms with their guilt. They were not happy with the past and had been going to various types of therapy for many, many years. I had known both of them for a long time, and now they traveled all the way to India to have some special time to study for self-awareness, for self-realization. They visited the mountains and caves where many people became enlightened. We climbed Mount Shatrunjaya, where a cluster of temples adorn the top of a holy mountain. On top of the highest of the temples, we had a special ceremonial meditation to let go of the past; to let go of the negative. Letting go of what had conditioned the mind.
Meditation is to free oneself from bitterness and sadness of past conditions and judgments. Because of our programmed beliefs, even religion,,is used to separate one from another.
110 - Journey to Enlightenment