Friday, January 23, 2009
Reflections on Arun Gandhi January 22
On January 22 Arun Gandhi lecture at East High at 7 pm. Arun Gandhi is the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. He says that (USA) has a violent culture. Violence is learned and therefore can be unlearned. Passive Violence is often the cause for overt violence. Many of us have random acts of passive violence, Therefore we need to reflect and meditate on our behaviors. There are certain practices that would help us overcome our violence both internal and external. He said that Israel and Palestine have been fighting for 60 years. it is time they admit that the solution is not going to happen with more violence. The solution can happen with non-violent practices. He had many stories to illustrate his thesis. He has also written some books with his thesis on non-violence as a solution. I was grateful to have attended his lecture and see such a young interest audience of about 300.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Dear friends, I could not resist but to share with you enlightened words of a dear friend. Perhaps it may resonate with some inspired reflections on the subject and use of the word 'non-violence'!Its a long read but worth it.
ReplyDeleteI truly enjoyed our meeting on the 19th.I wish you all the depth of this time unfolding in all of our hearts of possibilities. I would have liked to have attended the 22nd but didnt know of it. 300 people!I am not sure what 'non-violent practices are...for me it still indicates an 'inside job' of taking full responsibility for our states of misery.
May you make decisions that lead to your soul.
Sincerely,
Tarika Lea
"I used to think a great deal about non-violence, but everything I ever heard about it seemed so superficial. It touched my intellect but not my heart. And slowly I understood why. The non-violence everyone talked about was negative. The negative can never go deeper than the intellect; to touch life something positive is needed, If by non-violence one means nothing more than the renunciation of violence then it can never have any relation to real renunciation, something positive as well as something negative.
It is the negative character of the term "non-violence" that has made it so deceptive. The word is negative, but the experience to which it refers is a positive one. Non-violence is an experience of pure love, of a love that is not attached to anything at all. A love that is free of attachment is not focused; it is not directed to someone in particular, but to anyone and everyone. In fact, it is not really directed at all; it simply is. Unattached love is non-violence.
The aim of non-violence is to transform man's nature though love. Being non-violent is not renouncing violence, it is expressing love. And when love is there, violence automatically drops away with no effort at all. If a man feels he loves and yet has to make an effort to rid himself of violence then his love is not real at all. Darkness disappears at the advent of light; if it doesn't then you can be sure it isn't light which has come. Love is enough. The very existence of love is the non-existence of violence.
What is love anyway? Generally, what is known as love is really attachment. It is a means of escaping oneself through someone else. This kind of love acts as an intoxicant. It does not free someone from misery, it merely stupefies him, makes it bearable. This kind of love I call the relationship form. It is not really love at all. It is an illusion of love that grows out of one's own wretchedness.
Misery can lead the consciousness of man in two directions -- he can try to forget about it or he can do something to relieve it. Through the first approach a man may feel some happiness, some pleasure, but it is transitory because it is not possible to forget about the underlying unhappiness for long. What is popularly known as love is exactly this sort of thing -- a state of intoxication, of infatuation, of forgetfulness. It springs out of one's misery and is nothing more than a way to forget it.
The love I speak of as non-violence is the outcome of real happiness. It does not alleviate one's misery, it only happens when one's misery is gone. It is not intoxication, but wakefulness.
The consciousness which chooses the second direction, relief from misery, moves towards the essence of authentic love. When a man is happy inside, love flowers in him. In fact happiness in the inside becomes love on the outside. They are two aspects of the same feeling. Happiness is at the center; love is on the circumference.
This love does not require a relationship for its expression, it is the innate nature of the self. As light pours from the sun, love flows from the self. It has no relation with the outside world at all, nor does it aspire to any. It is totally free. This love I call non-violence.
If a man is in misery he is in a violent state; if he is happy he is non-violent. No one ever commits non-violence. It is not an action. It is existential; it refers to being. It is not a change in one's self. The important question is not what I do, it is what I am.
Everyone must ask himself whether he is miserable or happy. Everything depends on one's answer to this basic inquiry. But we have to look beyond outward appearances. One must strip oneself naked to perceive the reality, to look clearly, to see without self-deception. But when a man lifts the veils that covers his self he only sees darkness and misery. He becomes afraid. He wants to run, to hide. But those who mask their misery out of fear will never attain happiness. Misery is to be removed, not hidden. And to remove misery, it has to be exposed. This perception is penance; this insight is atonement. Disguising one's misery leads to the world; perceiving one's misery leads to the soul.
What we know as life is nothing more than an illusion, an hallucination. Success is our measure for life. We say a man has made a success of his life when he has succeeded in forgetting his underlying misery though the intoxication of wealth, of fame or of position. But the real truth of the matter is something totally different. These kinds of people have not attained to life at all, they have lost it. By forgetting their misery they are committing suicide.
Becoming aware of one's misery is planting the seed of understanding in the soul. Misery contains the essence of awakening within it. One who does not try to escape from himself will awaken into a new consciousness, fresh and unprecedented. He will become the witness to an inner revolution that will transform him entirely. Within himself he will see the darkness dissolving and he will discover that light pervades his entire consciousness. In this light he will come to know himself for the first time. Then he will realize for the first time, who he is.
When a man can feel the urge of awareness beginning to pierce through his misery, himself-awakening has begun. Only those who face the extremes of their misery finally transcend it. To know the truth requires this kind of courage.
Knowing who I am is knowing the truth. And then all the pain is gone. Misery is nothing but ignorance of one's self. When the self is discovered, one lives in consciousness and bliss. This is BRAHMAN; this is God, To know the self, to know God, is to know the truth. To know the truth is to attain happiness. When truth is attained, love and happiness flower in one's inner being. Happiness within becomes non-violence without.
Non-violence is a result of the experience of truth. And then the fragrance of non-violence spreads from one's being on the four winds.
OSHO
The Long, The Short and The All # 6
I agree that it is necessary to "reflect and meditate on our behaviors." This is not for the purpose of self-punishment, but to understand what it is that stands in the way of inner peace. What habitual patterns of thinking and acting keep us from experiencing inner peace? We can only discover this by attaining a stable mind as a starting point. This is the value of meditation. When we meditate, we gain a perspective over and above the movement of the mind. From this place we are able to observe our mind and our behavior, and, over time, gain some mastery over it. World peace is possible only when human beings have gained the ability to attain inner peace.
ReplyDeleteArun Ghandi mentioned that Americans do not practice exercises that discipline the mine. He said its especially important to develop ones capacity to focus on tasks. Meditation was an example of disciplining the mind.
ReplyDelete