Ten Days Journey Into The Self

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

Page 35

Around us we see all we have been given: sea and ness, for we could not live without earth, water, fire, air, nor without one another--including the efforts of millions of strangers. We are dependent on one another for our food, our clothes, our homes, our streets, our vehicles, our boats, our children, our education, our science, our art, our religion. Meditation will show us how to make our interdependence benefit us all, so no one will be advantaged at an-other's expense. Meditation will make us grateful, humble, enthused and united. When there is luminosity at the center, everything is telling us of great mysteries. And we see that since we are living in time and space, nothing is static. Time gives us change, which is a part of evolution, an unfolding and opening out of what is contained within.
When you meditate, there is no fearful distrust, no tense uncertainty, no roughness, no coarseness. Meditation deepens understanding, love and intelligence. The world is full of beautiful things, and of compelling challenges; we are too often not aware of them. It is full of beings that need our compassion, not our constant criticism and condemnation. When we have reached our center through meditation, we will not avoid confrontation with the opposition! opponent. If we deny the humanity of another, we deny our own.
If we are strongly "on center", we can see the foolishness of the fool without being shaken. When the seer meets an angry man, he thinks, "One mad man is enough." Also we cannot always educate the obsessed. Once an angry man harangued Buddha for a long time. When he was finished, Buddha replied, "Keep your words: they are like a bucket of jagged rocks. I have no use for them, so I will not receive them."
In meditation we make sure our actions are directed toward our life's mission. Our mission should not be one imposed on us by our family, or by the impact of our society. We must choose it. In meditation, we can come to be sure our choice is neither impressed from outside, nor an expression of our ego. Then when we know our mission, we have to make our-selves unavailable to all the superficial demands on us that would distract and deplete our energy.
Life can be manysided: we may have a vocation, family ties and responsibilities; and apart from our vocation, we may want to work for social change. All these aspects of life can enrich us and lead to meaningful actions. If we give ourselves to a life's mission leading to our essence. we will be linked to all the living.
Love and intelligence lead us to recognize each moment in our lives by what we do, as the potter is shaped by the pot he makes. When we discover our mission in each moment, our lives will become transformed.
The world is a guest house where people can co-operate and help each other. Life is a wonderful gift filled with gifts. But why are peace and justice so lacking; Where have truth and beauty gone? We have used zeal and energy for control of physical plane. Now we must use our zeal and energy to bring to all beings the gift of unity and peace and justice. To realize this prospect we will have to delve deep into ourselves.