'Thoughtlessness State'

In the past few articles, I have emphasized on thoughtlessness state. It is easy to say it rather then doing it. Constant practice required in achieving and staying on that state.  Various methods have been passed on from generation to generation with the ultimate goal to be in that state.

            I found it easier to be in the state with holding on a single thought. Whenever a thought arises, concentrate on that particular thought and hold on to it. Don’t let other thoughts to come following that initial thought. If we observe closely, each thought will be followed by another thought and the train of thought will start with a never-ending process until we sleep. Even in sleep, sometimes it will manifest as dream in the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep stage. The stage of sleep in which we are able to recall our dreams. So we are all aware that the train of thoughts never stops. If we observe closely during a conversation with friends or relatives, the topic will shift from one to another till at the end of the conversation, it will be a completely irrelevant topic from the beginning. The same goes with our thought process. The moment we woke up, the thought process will start with no whatsoever reasoning or correlation between each thoughts. It will continuously arise and dies off. The moment it dies, it will be given birth to another one. Sometimes one thought gives birth to many thoughts. Other times many thought will run concurrently at any one time. The whole process is a continuum.

            Holding on to a single thought is not an easy task. Initially, it is not even possible to identify a single thought. It is impossible to dissect a single thought from many thoughts. There will be so many thoughts running at the same time and it is not possible to hold on to a single thought. The ability to even observe the thought process without identifying with it, by itself a great achievement. We will call it the first step. The first step is important before we can go to the next stage. The first step is important to realise that thoughts are just thoughts. The problems with us are, we get identified with our thoughts. We have too many ‘I’. We will perfectly agree with one opinion and after a while we will change our opinion. We have too many opinions. We have too many questions. It is perfectly normal for us to change opinion according to the ‘I’ that we have adopted. It is perfectly normal for us to keep on changing our opinion and we are proud of it. We call it ‘evolution’. The constant change of opinion as a result of constant change of thoughts defines our so called ‘I’. It is also perfectly normal for us to day-dream, the identification with one’s thoughts without much attention to surroundings. Many of us day-dream at any one point sometimes on daily basis. We justify the act of day-dreaming by giving a name for it, deep thinking.

The state of thoughtlessness is unimaginable for the beginners. For a very simple reason, we have grown up thinking and we are thought to think. Our parents ask us to think. Our teachers ask us to think. Our professors ask us to think. The whole humanity is asking us to think. And now suddenly, when we are asked to stop thinking and just ‘let go’, it becomes a burden. Actually, it should be the other way around. The act of thinking should be a burden rather than stop thinking. Our natural state during birth was in a thoughtlessness state. Somehow along the way, during our childhood we learned how to think and forget about our natural state. So the whole process of the exercise now is just to rewind ourselves to go back to the state where we belong. We are going to unwind ourselves. We are going to put a reverse gear to go back where we came from.

OK, I will stop digressing and come back to the methods of how to do it. As I mentioned earlier, we need to hold on to that single thought. Initially, many thoughts will pass together. Later on, once you manage to identify a single thought, many more thoughts will come following that single thought. Never mind, hold on to that single thought. Let few other thoughts pass following that. After constant practice, it is achievable for a short time. Slowly the number of thoughts following the initial thought will reduce. I realized holding on to the breath is a good method to suspend temporarily the thought process. If holding on to the single thought is impossible, just inhale a long breath and hold on to the breath. Hold on the breath till the body allows. Hold on to the breath till we can feel our own heart beat. Momentary control of thoughts is achievable by regulating the breathing process. Alternatively, inhale via the left nostril and exhale via the right nostril. Alternating nostril breathing helps to calm down the whole mental process. Both process of concentrating on a single thought that arises and breathing technique should be done concurrently. Another method is observe how the air filling up the lungs during the inhalation process and how it exits slowly during the exhalation. It might take months and years to master the technique of controlling the thought process and breathing, but it is achievable with the blessing of Guru/Masters.

Over time, with constant practice, the duration of thoughtlessness state will prevail compared to the normal state in which we are pre-occupied with thoughts. In that thoughtlessness state, a state of clarity will come. A paradigm shift will happen in our life. Things will never look the same again. In that thoughtlessness state, a tremendous energy will arise. The state of thoughtlessness will gives birth to the state where we came from and we belong. Aum Sadguru.

He is wordless

I was contemplating for a while to write this article following uproar over the use of a certain word denoting ‘God’ among different major religions in Malaysia. I am not mentioning the exact word here, as I am not going to dwell regarding the same issue, which has been subjected to ongoing debate for personal and political gains. For me, the matter of debating the use of the word ‘God’ is as futile as the word itself. The word ‘God’ which is created by the three letters has no meaning whatsoever except by own interpretation and understanding. Again and again, I would like to emphasis that words are just words. We give value to words. So words without understanding remained meaningless. But a deep understanding won’t help either in understanding the word God. You can understand the meaning of God from what you have read in scriptures or thought by so called ‘religious experts’. But understanding of god is not possible to an ordinary mind. Understanding of god is not possible to a dull mind. Understanding of god is only possible when there is a serious inquiry. Understanding of god is only possible when mind is transcended. Ordinary mind only can comprehend that much about God limited by the boundaries of the mind itself.  But again understanding God does not mean you have comprehended God. The moment God is understood; He has been brought to the limited boundary of mind. How can God be understood when He can be limited to an ordinary mind. He is limitless. He has no border. He is timeless. No words are able to describe Him. He is beyond words. Therefore any attempt to restrict His names by certain words would proof our idiocy. Restricting His names to certain words just exposing our ignorance about Him. Claiming certain words to describe Him is very shallow.

Understanding of God is as good as to understand the word itself, nothing more. Always question who understands and what is there to be understood. You can understand the many different words to describe God. You can understand the many different forms of Gods if you believe in idol worship. You can understand the God in your religion as according to your belief and faith. But you will never understand HIM as He is. The moment you understand Him, you are bringing Him to your level of understanding. It will be as good as your own mental projections of Him. You can go on projecting Him as what you like, as what you perceive but at the end of day, it is just your own projections.  He is beyond mind and beyond the projections of your mind. So, stop projecting. He can’t be projected. He can’t be understood.

I was talking to one of my friend regarding the similar topic. I asked him the question about god and he mentioned he read in his religious scriptures pertaining God and he was be able to regurgitate what ever he memorized. I ask him again what he knows about God and not what he has read about God. He was dumbfounded. He was unable to utter a single word. I would like to ask the same question again, what we know about God. Not as what we read about Him, not as what we think God is. Not as what we thought throughout our life but seriously from our heart. How many of us can tell from our inner heart not projected mind about God. Godliness is not something we can learn through our degrees in university. Godliness is not knowledge of the mind. Godliness is not equivalent to memorizing the scriptures to whatever religion we belonged. The idiocy of issuing a religious statement by religious scholars is the biggest hypocrisy. As long as you are confining Him with certain words you have not tasted Him. As long as you are confining Him with certain words you have not experienced Him. As long as you are confining Him with certain words, you have not ‘breathed’ Him. As long as you are confining Him with certain words, you have not ‘heard’ Him. As long as you are confining Him with certain words, you have not ‘seen’ Him. As long as you are confining Him with certain words, you know absolutely nothing about Him. The moment you know HIM, the ecstasy of Him will stop all the questioning. The moment you know HIM, the authority that questions will stop. The moment you know HIM, the ‘Ego’ that questions will stop. The moment you know HIM, the mind that questions Him will stop.

HE IS when ‘we’ are not. HE IS when the mind stops. HE Is the dance of the heart. HE Is the breath of our body. HE Is the ‘prana’. HE Is the answer when all the questioning stops. HE is when all the words no more. He is the Question and the Answer Itself. ONLY HE IS. Aum Sadguru. 

'Alive' vs 'Floating'

Today is 21/12/2012. I have decided to write today not because the significance of the date but I have just completed one of the assignment given by my Prof. Past 1 week I was pre- occupied with the assignment. So much so, it was difficult for me to be ‘alive’. I lived like anybody else. I functioned like anybody else. But I was not ‘alive’. I got up in the morning, took breakfast, walked to the tram, reached workplace, rushing to meet the dateline while doing assignment and back home. The cycle continued for past 10 days. But I was not ‘alive’. Maybe there were moments I was ‘alive’ but most of the time I was ‘floating’. It was harder to be ‘alive’ when I was pre-occupied with the assignment. I needed the faculty of intellect and mind to help me to achieve the completion of the assignment. But in return ‘they’ made sure I was ‘floating’.  I was ‘existed’ as real as the stone and plants that I passed everyday to work. But at the same time ‘I’ was not existed in my context of ‘aliveness’. So, what is it to be ‘alive’ vs. ‘floating? We are alive only, when we are fully aware of our surroundings and ourselves. We are alive only, when we can appreciate the flower blossoming. We are alive only, when we can smell the flowers fragrances. We are alive only, when we can appreciate the morning breeze touching our face and hair. We are alive only, when we just remain as we are. We are alive only, when we are not dreaming. We are alive only, when we understand absolutely what is running in our thoughts. We are alive only, when not a single thought can pass in our mind without us noticing. We are alive only, when not even a single breath can go out or go in form our body without we realizing it.

 But those 10 days, I was ‘floating’. The thought of assignment occupied most of the time and space in my brain. I was walking and thinking the best way to finish it. I was eating and wandering the best solution for it. I was sleeping and even in dream finding solutions for the assignment. I was ‘floating’ rather than be ‘alive’. Those 10 days I was back to my past 35 years where I was ‘floating’ rather than being ‘alive’. The greatest misery of human kind is most of the time we are ‘floating’. Occasionally we are ‘alive’. Some, I would say never experienced the ‘aliveness’ in them. They were born, live for 100 years and die one day without knowing anything about being ‘alive’.

I was talking to my wife the other day about the same topic and I asked her to experience ‘aliveness’. I asked her to do a simple experiment by observing her breath. I asked her to watch her breath and observe how many times she will ‘miss’ from observing the breath. Those moments she was noticing the breath I called ‘alive’ and the moment she ‘miss’ to notice the breath, I addressed it as ‘floating’. Interestingly she managed to hold on to observe the breath going in and out for some time. Later on she needs constant reminding to be ‘alive’. A nick of time is sufficient for the mind to take control and we forget who is the master and, there we go ‘floating’. It was a continuous, tedious and long exercise initially to remain ‘alive’ rather than ‘floating’ but with constant practice it can be achieved. Even in that moment of observing breath, there will be thoughts running in our mind, such a powerful attachments of our body to the mind. Stopping the remaining running thoughts requires another exercise on top of the observing the breath. I told my wife to divide her whole concentration/thinking equally into two; one part should be concentrated on watching the breath and the other part should concentrate on the epigastrium/heart. By dividing the attention into two, one needs to be extremely aware to be constantly watchful of the breath and at the same time concentrating at the heart. By doing so, a glimpse of being ‘alive’ is possible for those particular moments. That is what I called living in the present. Living in the moment absolutely without past and future. That is the moment of truth. That is the ultimate reality. That is the blissful moments.  That is the state of ‘thoughtlessness’. May all of us blessed to be in that state. Aum Sadguru.