Art Of Living

When you see Sachin Tendulkar playing exceptionally well, or hear Lata Mangeshkar sing like a nightingale, do you ever think “They were born to do so”? Well sure they were born to so. But what’s that one thing that we were all born to do. Live. We were all born to live. But today we do everything except really live our lives. This modern lifestyle and technology has helped us connect to people sitting in a different country but we really don’t have time to connect with ourselves. Whatever the time may be but all that a person seeks in life is peace and harmony. But this is what we lack in our lives these days.

But what is the reason for this unhappiness?  One of the reasons for this is that all of us wish to earn money, reach great heights in a very little time. We don’t realise that patience might be the key to unlock happiness! We are never satisfied with what we get. We always wish to seek more. But in wanting more for ourselves we actually are getting lesser. Ask yourself one basic question. Why do you want to succeed? I am sure the answer will be ‘to stay happy ‘. So we need to find a solution for this problem.

The difficulty is that we are not aware when negativity starts. It begins deep in the unconscious mind, and by the time it reaches the conscious level it has gained so much strength that it overwhelms us, and we cannot observe it. However, someone who reached the ultimate truth found a real solution. He discovered that whenever any impurity arises in the mind, physically two things start happening simultaneously. One is that the breath loses its normal rhythm. We start breathing harder whenever negativity comes into the mind. This is easy to observe. At a subtler level, a biochemical reaction starts in the body, resulting in some sensation. Every impurity will generate some sensation or the other within the body. Respiration and sensations will help in two ways. First, they will be like private secretaries. As soon as negativity arises in the mind, the breath will lose its normality; it will start shouting, “Look, something has gone wrong!” And we cannot scold the breath; we have to accept the warning. Similarly, the sensations will tell us that something has gone wrong. Then, having been warned, we can start observing the respiration, start observing the sensations, and very quickly we find that the negativity passes away.

With training, we can be aware of our breathing and also of what is happening inside. Whatever it is, breath or sensation, we learn just to observe it without losing our mental balance. We stop reacting and multiplying our misery. Instead, we allow the defilements to manifest and pass away. The more one practices this technique, the more quickly negativities will dissolve. Gradually the mind becomes free of defilements, becomes pure. Soon you will be able to seek peace. This is what the Buddha taught: an art of living. He never established or taught any religion, any “ism”. He never instructed those who came to him to practice any rites or rituals, any empty formalities. Instead, he taught them just to observe nature as it is, by observing the reality inside. So in the running pace of life one should not forget to live. Because no matter what, we are all born to live.

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