Ten Days Journey Into The Self

Author(s): Chitrabhanu
Publisher: Jain Meditation International Centre

Page 34

Now at last, even though military appropriations in-crease, many people all over the world are rejecting war. The soul which discovered the power of the atom can also discern between its constructive and destructive use. We can use creative energy, which is within us, to choose life.
We are not, in essence, the destroyer of ourselves or others. The destruction we bring about is not from the soul, the Atman. It is from helplessness, ignorance, unbelief, armored in pride and ego. Under the armor is always a soft being who wants to give and receive love, and who aspires to emancipation.... Energy must flow into acts of love. Unless we love, books do not educate us. If the heart is dry, without love, inside us nothing grows. Knowledge from the brain is barren. As a poet said, "The heart has the reasons which reason cannot define." Love is a fountain of energy. If you love yourself and others, you live. If you hate yourself and others, you die. You must feel that "I am energy--and responsible for the use of that energy and of all physical energy." At that time you will recognize your true self.
Friends, how much energy is poured into pastimes, into petty self-gratifications, and selfindulgence, in-to wasting time, and into the world's hurly-burly--into lust, driving nowhere in fast cars, drinking, taking drugs to relax. We waste energy in worry. Let go of guilt-- say, "That time I was ignorant, and now I know"
Don't compare yourself with others. Gandhi was small in body, and if he had compared himself with others he might have doubted whether he was impressive enough to lead a nation. All night we thrash, turn, consume energy meant for the morning. The cure for this disease lies hidden in the heart of the illness. The essence of these states of excitement, of these emotional whirlwinds, is energy. Instead of the problems we now cause ourselves, we can learn to transmute destructive actions into constructive energy.
Today, friends, in this age of a global society which is also the nuclear age, we need to use meditation to find the divinity within, in order to find meaning in life. If we find the divinity within, we will want the well-being of all.
There are two kinds of meditation. One is meditation with the eyes lowered, or closed. The other is meditation with the eyes wide open.
When we meditate with our eyes closed, we go within to the subconscious and superconscious, the essence, the divinity. Lust is transformed into love. Selfcenteredness and indifference become transform-ed into compassion and the desire to serve mankind. Apathy and doubt, skepticism and cynicism become transformed into living and intelligent action.... Energy bubbles and pulsates.
Meditation with the eyes open shows us the world around us, and from the world around us--Sun, wind, trees, humanity-- comes energy: the center and the circumference interact. We can meditate walking in the street or by the sea, or sitting in the subway.