Hi Folks -
How are you?
Life is a roller coaster, isn't it?!
Lets take up an interesting question first -
'What makes you feel death is simple or routine?'
I don't remember exactly where I used these words, in which post, in what context, but I will answer to the best of my ability.
Whether one believes in after-life or not,treating death as a commonplace occurance will put it in a proper perspective.
Many of us usually don't think about it, or believe that whether one is good or bad, healthy or unhealthy, holy or unholy, death is going to come anyway, so why change what we are comfortable with?
This thought is treacherous and makes one complacent.
It is good to remind oneself to -
1.Periodically cleanse oneself from inside.
2.Declutter the mind.
Deep meditation does exactly that, so when death of a dear one happens, one can regain one's balance fast enough to not to slide into helplessness and depression.
Here,I am very happy to share a wonderful and brave person's account of first Vipassana course.
I am reproducing the mail with permission -
'Doing Vipassana during those 10 days was amazing.
Surely, I went through my uneasiness, nausea feeling, body pain and getting up at 4:00 a.m. in the morning was another pain but the end results were dramatic.
I still remember how disturbed I was when I went for the course and everytime I was praying that I should get all my questions answered at the end of the course.
I got all the answers one by one during the course itself.
I realised that I am short tempered, impatient, lazy, jealous, judgemental and what not and I needed to work on that.
I slowly started feeling very peaceful inside.
I don't know what was coming out of my body that I also started feeling lighter.
During that course many other things came out.
All the good and bad memories which affected me at some point of my life also came out about which I had never given any thought before and when they came up, I realised that there are many lessons to be learnt from them.
Not only that, many of my likes and hobbies which I wanted to pursue started pushing me from inside and stressed me to make some concrete decisions.
I immediately decided that I will take up photography seriously (which was a dormant hobby since my childhood), will learn guitar, dancing, swimming and horse riding.
I became much more serious about taking the six day training on past life regression therapy from Dr. Newton.
I also got a message that I should leave my present job and do what I want to do in Finance.
On the 11th day, when I was out, I felt I am the most peaceful person on the earth.
Within the next two days, I searched the internet for a good weekend photography course.
I found that and booked it as soon as the enrollment opened.
Also, I am losing more weight so that I can wear a swimming trunk and also ride a horse (right now the horse won't take me on its back and no swimming costume is available of my size!).
But that was what effort I am putting after coming back.
You will be amazed to know what is automatically happening in my life.
I am not angered at any provocation, not accumulating any stress about anything, even though I don't like my job, I am not agitated if I am unable to do any work and going office on time (which I haven't done in the last one year), not reacting if anything is not going as per my wishes, enjoying driving now (earlier I liked driving, now I love it!), not finding fault with others, not nagging and complaining about my life and many many things more.
I can't believe that only one Vipassana course has changed me so much!!
Earlier life was beatiful, now life is the best thing that has ever happened to me.
Now, I feel that I am empowered to solve my own problems.
I am surprised at my changed attitude so much that I cannot even recognise myself.
I don't know what would have happened to me if you would not have shown me the real mirror image of myself and suggested Vipassana to me.
I was actually on the path of self-destruction.
Through this entire time, the most surprising discovery I made was about myself.
It is not that someone hates me and does not like me, the truth is that I hate them and my own hatred was bothering me.
And that is why even after achieving so much in my life, I was never happy.
A thanks to the power of infinity for putting me on the right path otherwise I don't know what I would have done with my life.'
Wonderful, isn't it?!
This sure takes courage.
Living with yourself as the 'real' you starts to emerge,throwing away the negativity with determination and learning to be equanimous -
It takes will power. And Vipassana teaches you how to retrieve it from where it is hidden inside you and teach you to use it forever.
One is never short of self-esteem and self-confidence once one completes a course because one understands oneself and knows exactly how to improve without depending on any outside agency.
So do it!
You will enjoy meeting yourself!
Bye for now -
