In this world everything knows everything. Knowledge is inherent in the world. Everything knows what to be and how to be. That includes human body as well. Except human mind. Man repeatedly forgets what he is expected to be and how to be. He keeps on thinking to be something. He does not realise the inherent source of knowledge that he carries within. But creates a new identity an artificial centre that makes him off the centre. Eccentric.
Understand it like this, when a child is born, look into his eyes. He is perfectly centred. Look into eyes of a child and you will find a void looking at you. He cries with full vigour, he laughs with full vigour. He gets totally angry. He is total energy. He is in the centre.
Then we tell him he has a name, we give him an artificial name— an identity that he borrows-a borrowed identity. When he looks at himself in the mirror and thinks the image in the mirror is the name that his parents call the image with. Slowly he begins believing in his borrowed identity. He starts believing in his possessions, he starts believing in the world around him—the make-believe world. And a new centre is born. That is born with the borrowed identity. His borrowed identity creates an artificial centre. The story begins. What Hindus call maya is an imaginary world that he creates around himself to live in it and he is lost into it forever. That’s the story of man.
Centre remains there. Void remains there. But you get stuck somewhere. He keeps on running but does not reach anywhere. Keeps on finding new milestones. Buddha said choose your yearning very carefully, because whatever that you yearn for will sooner or later be fulfilled. You yearn for money it gets fulfilled, you yearn for prestige power it will eventually come to you.
Yearning is in fact what Darwin calls evolution. Whatever you yearned you earned. Whenever you yearn you yearn change. You were a meek dog, you yearned to be a fighter dog. Yearning evolved you into a larger dog with big canines in your next births. In one life Buddha was an elephant. Many stories of the Buddha, the awakened one, being elephant are there. Once a fire erupted in jungle and it was a huge fire. The elephant also ran to save himself. He saw a big tree and stood there to relax, as the fire drew near the elephant in order to move picked his one foot up but meantime a small rabbit came and sat under his feet to relax under the tree. The elephant was filled with compassion and did not put the foot down to save the life of rabbit. In moments the elephant toppled because he could not hold his weight on three legs. Fire caught up with him and he died. Next birth the elephant was born a man. Yearning for compassion made him human the next birth.
Darwin theory is half-truth. The truth is that man continues to evolve into animals even today it depends on his yearning. It does not necessarily means because he is born a man he will always be reborn a man. It depends what you yearn for. Yogis when they meditate into their past lives after three-four lives, they find themselves in the birth of cow. This has been experienced by many. Darwin is true when he says that our bodies have evolved. When he talks of physical bodies evolving into shapes and because of their ‘yearning’ which he calls survival of the fittest. But Darwin is completely wrong when he says that man has come from monkey. Physical appearance of man might have been an adaptation of motley of animals not just monkey. But the state where life happens is beyond matter and when life ends matter does not matter.
Whole life man remains in deep slumber. His eyes are filled with yearning. When you yearn something you become self-hypnotic. You tender your hypnosis the whole life. If you have to be hypnotic towards something then don’t be hypnotic towards things like money, bungalows, cars, et al. Be hypnotic towards love, compassion or an exploration of yourself the Buddha way. But you keep on ill-advising yourself. You call it life but you don’t know whether this is life. You are moving like a zombie on auto pilot mode without knowing who is moving. You think your borrowed identity is moving you and it’s you. You mistake your borrowed identity as you.
In fact, it is the other way round. Your borrowed identity is the guise that you adorn to cover your unreal self. Because fake is always sold as genuine. If fake is sold as fake, no one will buy it. The fake to be, genuine is needed. To be unreal self, real self is needed. You are 100% real and are in the centre. But you think you are not the centre but your borrowed identity is the centre around which your entire world moves. Your world is your maya (illusion). It has nothing to do with the real world around you. But real world is real. But you have created an unreal world of maya.
The eccentricity is your problem. If you come back to the centre your eccentricity goes away. You attain to your void again. You are born out of void and go back to the void.
You have created an alter life by creating an illusion to live in it. Your mind has created an illusionary world to live in and you have plunged into a state of deep hypnosis. When death comes, you suddenly realize and pity that you have not lived the life. When death comes you want to live. You pity how you lived a life in dreams. You, therefore, fear death because it is going to take away that illusionary world from you. In a state of dreaming you have created thoughts of life, the thoughts of living your life subject to fulfilment of conditions. Conditions continue to create new conditions and you continue to follow it like a silk worm in hypnosis. Millions of dollars, or large fan following or power position do not break your hypnosis but deepen it.
Someone asked Bhikku, “What is real and what is unreal self?” Bhikku replied, “To be real breakfree. Do not avoid the void in you. In fact, you cannot avoid the void in you. That’s how false self gets created. Look at the void in you which is always staring at you from within.”
Yearn for something of real worth. That which can awaken you. That which can make you aware of the void while alive. Start with centring. Let’s begin with Hara. Hara is the centre in your body from where you come to life and you go back after dying. It is below the navel in the lower abdomen. Take a deep breath inhale and exhale. Do not take breath by your lungs but let the breath go to your stomach and let your lower abdomen expand while inhaling. Very slowly it will begin to happen effortlessly. You have started a journey towards going back to your life. If you yearn for money all your life you will end up being a poor beggar. If you yearn for power all your life you will end up being a poor slave. If you yearn for fame and prestige you will end up being in a state of ego-hypnosis. Instead turn back. Yearn for the source, go back to your source. It has infinite energy. You are born emperor, just declare it. Rejoice in your kingdom.
The author is a spiritual coach and an independent advisor on policy, governance and leadership. He can be contacted at arunavlokitta@ gmail.com.