NEW INSIGHTS – WISDOM FROM THE EAST
TIME / LIFE MANAGEMENT
PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE
The following is a replication of Post.2 on the same Topic in my blog wiselivingideas.blogspot.com
As the content is as much spiritual, as it is useful for daily life, I am reproducing it in this Blog as well. Readers of this Post may also like to read the other posts on the subject in the other blog as well. ….
We can’t change the Past by any means. It is a static Picture.
Your first requirement therefore is – simple, whole hearted, total acceptance of your past, as it stands. Do not try to see your past in any other way than what it actually is.
This is the perennial human problem. Many individuals have huge difficulty in accepting their past. Even at nation’s level, Most nations attempt to write and re-write history suitable to their CURRENT NEEDS. Such non-acceptance of the past is meaningless, untruthful, harmful, and destructionist in nature.
Therefore, Accept your past, all of it, in complete humility and honesty.
Accept your birth, your parents, your nation, your body Characteristics, your educational and other skill sets, and every thing that you are. Accept all of that. Relieve yourself from all superiority and Inferiority complexes. Reside in Absolute Truth.
Likewise, accept all facts about people around you; know them and be aware of them. In short – accept all that is PAST.
We can easily define past with the following equation.
PAST = FACT
There is no other satisfactory, all inclusive definition of either fact or past.
We can draw corollaries from this definition.
(i)
ALL PAST = ALL FACT.
(ii) Neither present nor future is, as yet, a fact. Fact can only be PAST and vice versa.
With some pondering, I hope, readers will see the logic clearly. There is nothing beyond simple logic in all this.
People and nations who do not accept their PAST, invariably hallucinate. There will be no reality in their life. Whether they know it or understand it is immaterial. Some one can hallucinate all their life.
Remember the story of the erstwhile USSR and remember how its hallucinating past fell apart into dismal ruins when its own FACTS caught up with it.
In Individual’s life also, when invariably, our hallucinations fall apart, reality catches up with us leading to unpleasant results.
The next question, we dealt with in Post.1 was – how do we use our FACTUAL PAST (and not our Hallucinating Past) to mould our present and future.
We saw how to improve marital relations by bringing in PAST, PLEASANT incidents forcefully in to life and re-living them in the present. This is one great use of the Past. We will see more of it in future Posts.
In this context, we introduced a concept called “Pratipaksha Bhavana” that was advocated by the great sage, Patanjali in his Yoga sutras (Sadhana Padham –Vs.33).
Pratipaksha Bhavana, in a nut shell, means that – to neutralize a bad situation, bad emotion, or bad environment, we need to introduce its opposite emotion in and around us very strongly, with the support of a strong, supportive past wherever possible. It is a reasonably EASY, ETHICAL and PRACTICAL concept, as, all that is needed is, enhancing our own DETERMINATION to come out of the bad situation, emotion or environment that we are in.
As we know – nobody can take away our absolute right to create our own feelings, emotions and determination inside our mind; that is, we have the sole and absolute right to create our internal world the way we want it.
Nobody can take away that right from YOU. But, YOU can take away your own right. In fact, it is you who periodically takes away your right to create your internal world in accordance with your own wishes – and the culprit is your own fears, suspicions, lack of faith and feelings of insufficiency. Give up these doubts and negative emotions and generate your internal world of positivity and joy confidently.
Start this process of “Pratipaksha Bhavana”; see how the negativity around you evaporates gradually; See how the people and situations around you change towards the positive very quickly. In modern terminology, “the Law of Attraction” is in operation here.
What you strongly desire, SELFLESSLY, is supported by all the universal powers around you and they bless your efforts. Many positive things happen because of this – and your efforts will seem to move you towards your goal almost without your effort.
Some times you may find the goal itself moving towards you and meeting you half way!
Many types of Meditations are designed to induce such positive changes in and around you.
“The power of Positive thinking” is also the creation of a strong emotion coupled with intense thinking on achievement of your goals.
This method out lined in Post.1 works in many circumstances and not merely in marital relationships. It can work wonderfully even in international diplomacy. In introducing the method, we endeavoured to introduce positive thinking not only within us, but also in OTHERS around us - by subtle transfer of our own positive thinking to them. We are thereby creating a Positive atmosphere all around us. Who all will respond to this technique? Almost every one. Some will take less time. Some will take more time.
The only absolute, first requirements is – the first person to change must be YOU!!
As Mahatma Gandhi said - You must be the change you want to see in the world.
If you love your spouse totally, you can make him / her love you. Don’t try to see their pimples. Don’t try to see their scars. Try to see all things noble in them. Be willing and enthusiastic to see all those things which are positive and noble in them. This is the trick. This is the requirement. Their scars will disappear. Their pimples will disappear. They will sparkle as human beings. You are the catalyst. True. But, you are not changing them. They are changing themselves.
We talked about the spouse – because, most of the problems in today’s world is between the spouses. If the home is OK, the world will be Ok too. The technique works faster at home, because both spouses have a stake in each other, and will recognize the mutual benefits as they are accruing to each and will respond more vigorously and more positively, as time progresses.
There is a word of caution, though. Both spouses have been going through the wrong route for years or perhaps decades and some of the feelings of distrust and negativity may have been built up all these years. Therefore you need some time to bring back the positivity in you and in your spouse. In you, it might need about 21 days. In your spouse, you might need 45 to 48 days – which is recognized in India as one period of change. It is called Mandala.
Mandala is a period in which any permanent change can be induced in any normal Individual. If you remain positive for 45-to 48 days, you can stay that way for the rest of your life. But, if you so choose, you can also revert back to your old bad habits and ways – that is , if you so want. This Negativity can be induced in a split second. Bad habits take no time at all. But, any good habit takes a Mandala period to get ingrained. You can thereafter, very easily continue your good habit.
Remember; this change in you and around you, is always accomplished in the present – but with immense help from the past. As you can see- what you want to see in the past – matters a lot in changing people around you and YOU.
This is the beneficial use of the Past for you. We also said that the Knowledge, (good) habits, skills, relationships etc acquired by you in the Past are valuable, and you must renew them, enhance them and use them to enhance you life in the present and the future. We will now move to the PRESENT.
PRESENT
Present is a result, mostly, of the influence of past. We can reduce PRESENT also to a simple equation.
PRESENT = RESULT OF THE CUMULATIVE INFLUENCE OF (YOUR OWN PAST + ALL THE ENVIRONMENTAL FORCES + All HUMAN FORCES ) ACTING ON YOU AT PRESENT)
Present is the result of all the factors and forces mentioned in the equation.
These factors are :
1. 1. Result of the cumulative influence of your own Past life.
2. Cumulative result of all Environmental Forces on your Life
3. Cumulative result of all Human forces acting on your life.
All these factors are acting on your life at all moments of your life. You only need to recognize them properly.
What are the characteristics of the PRESENT.
1.
PRESENT IS, Just this one Moment.
2. You are always in the PRESENT; in this one moment.
3. You are absolutely and totally POWERLESS to move either into past or into future.
4. All the 3 forces mentioned earlier are simultaneously acting on YOU in the present.
5. YOU also can and do ACT but only in the Present. All forces, including you, in the Universe act, and can act, only in the present.
6. You can choose your action, but, cannot refrain from or abstain from ACTION totally.
7. What you do – is called ACTION, or Karma in the Indian tradition.
8. What all others and the universal forces do – to you, is called RESULTS, or, Karma phalam, that which you receive, in return for your actions.
9. The correlation between ACTION and RESULTS is the grand theory of Karma and Karma Yoga.
10. ACTION and RESULTS are continuously occurring in the present.
The theory of Karma and Karma Yoga is a great contribution to humanity from Lord Krishna, who had brought it at one place in chapter.3 of his Bhagavad Gita. But, the theory is largely misunderstood.
Until this theory is properly understood and its scientific basis is digested, people will always be committing the same mistakes again and again and live in a world of unreality and unhappiness.
This is being dealt with in detail in my other Blog – www.wisespiritualideas.blogspot.com. Interested readers may kindly see that blog also for understanding several features of the Theory of Action.
In this Blog, we will briefly examine some relevant features of the same.
First, we will deal with the Basic tenets of the Science of ACTION.
YOU, and none other than YOU have the Full Freedom, responsibility and right for ALL OF YOUR ACTIONS.
You are the one to choose all of your actions. But, you have no choice to abstain from all actions.
Gita says – ‘Yogah Karmasu Kausalam’, which means, yoga is the performance of all of your actions with excellence and Great skill.
When you perform your action with excellence and great skill, your action rises above mediocrity and becomes Yoga. Else, it is mere Karma and not Karma Yoga.
You are given three powers that enable you to perform your ACTIONS. These are :
1. Jnana Sakthi (The Power of Knowledge)
2. Sankalpa Sakthi or Iccha Sakthi (The power of will)
3. Kriya Sakthi (The power of Action)
Jnana Sakthi is the Power of Knowledge that must always swing into action first. Jnana Sakthi must decide your goals for the present and the future. Jnana Sakthi is your cumulative achievement from the totality of your Past. But, if your goals are selfless, if they are beneficial to others and not harmful to any one, then, other universal powers also will bless you with intuitive knowledge you never had earlier, which may prompt you into actions you never imagined earlier. The Law of attraction works precisely in this way. Your Jnana sakthi is enhanced exponentially, when you decide to be of help to all those around you.
SANKALPA SAKTHI (or) ICCHA SAKTHI :This is the power of Decision but it also includes the power of imagination. In Effect, it implies the fixation of your Goals. Sankalpa Sakthi exhorts you to put all of your power behind your goals. There is a significant difference between Iccha and Sankalpa. Iccha is simple desire or wish. It translates in to Sankalpa, when you put your whole power of decision behind it. Once the Iccha becomes a Sankalpa, your body, mind, emotions will all come together for its achievement. All desires do not translate into decisions. But once they become Decisions, your Sankalpa Sakthi will drive you towards achievement of the same with great energy. The Ancient Vedas and Upanishads eulogize the power of Sankalpa in achievement of any objective. It is said that – the almighty created the whole Universe with his Power of Sankalpa from out of nothing. It also says that, at the time of PRALAYA, the whole universe dissolves back into the same nothing because of the same Sankalpa Sakthi. Human being is also endowed with the Power of Sankalpa. Sankalpa also implies the power of concentration. We will see more of it in future Posts.
KRIYA SAKTHI : This is the Power of Action. We are endowed with the five senses, five organs of action, the mind and the emotions that enable us perform our actions. As we have said earlier, if your Sankalpa is beneficial to others, the universal powers will add their own power of action to yours, in proportion to the strength and Purity of your Sankalpa. Thus, ACTION proceeds out of Jnana Sakthi, Sankalpa Sakthi and Kriya Sakthi, in that order. Action always happens in the PREESENT. Hence, Time Management or Life Management always happens in the present. One, two or all the three powers of you are in action at all times.
We will see how – in the next Post.
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