Spiritual Journey (part 3) - Power of Perspective

 

More than a couple of months had passed, since Jack and Jill's last visit to the monastery when they learned about Emptiness. 

Jack's homework had been to to cultivate being aware of being the experiencer in his day to day activities. 

Over the past month and a half Jack had been cultivating his awareness practice, which he had managed to enhance to a level where he was aware of himself as an experiencer majority of  the times. The awareness practice had spilled over into Jack's dream state, where he was able to be moderately aware of his dreams. There were still some actions he struggled with in being aware and one of them related to his anger, which seemed to come unannounced, but at least he had started becoming aware of it during or after the fact. 

Jill's homework had been to cultivate presence, by being in the zone initially at least twice a day and then gradually increasing to all activities she did. 

Jill's work mostly required Jill to find blocks of time to be free from distractions. Jill was quickly able to find time to be in an absorbed state as far as her work was concerned, however being absorbed in mundane tasks and other uninteresting tasks proved to be challenging initially. With continued practice Jill was able to stay largely present during her day.

The awareness and presence practices, had appeared to be hard work for both Jack and Jill and the results had not been apparent initially, but they were transformative was clear to them based on feedback from friends, family and work colleagues. However both Jack and Jill felt they still had a way to go in learning the nuances of these practices, before they could claim mastery.

It was Sunday, they both got up early to make the most of the day, and had already called the monastery to book enough time with the monk who they referred to now as the Master.
The Master was seated in the usual position in a meditative pose at the base of the big statue of Buddha. He greeted them and then said "you both have made good progress over the last two months, much better than most, come have a seat. Today lets strengthen, all that you have learnt so far through your practices".

Turning towards Jack, the Master said "I see you are more aware of your day to day actions, but anger is an emotion not yet visible to you before it arises. Know this that all your emotions need to be accepted as they are, there is no good or bad, some emotions are more deeply engrained in you due to your past habits and so will require more awareness practice to become visible. What do you feel ?"

"I have certainly become a calmer person as a result of this practice and feel I am in control of most of my emotions other than anger. This is also the feedback from work and Jill. However how to I get rid of the anger" asked Jack.

"The first step is to accept the emotion in this case anger, whenever it arises, the next step is to understand what it is that triggers it, surely you are not angry at everything that does not happen the way you want it. Perhaps it relates to certain people, certain situations, find out how you normally react and create an intention to be aware whenever such situations arise in the future. The intent can be further refined by rehearsing what you would consider an acceptable response, so that when you encounter the situation again, your response is aware and considered. Remember the purpose of awareness practice is to shine the light on activity which in the past was carried out on auto-pilot. As the awareness strengthens, you will find all your emotional states will become visible and eventually create a sense of detachment from these intense emotions, reducing the impact of the emotion" said the Master. 

Turning towards Jill, the Master said "I see you are more present in your day to day activities, how do you feel ?". 

"I initially struggled with mundane tasks, but now I have started enjoying everything I do. There are times when the old habits of the mind are triggered and my egoic mind drives my actions, I am not sure how to overcome this" said Jill.

"Remember the years of mind conditioning will not dissolve in an instant, this will require some time and practice. Every time you feel old habits have taken over again, firstly accept the habit for what it is and then surrender to the present, dwelling on the habit will not do any good, practice this and you shall become more present. Always remember that Presence is your natural state and all the habits that have been adopted are just that - adoptions, once you accept them for what the habits are, and surrender to the present, they will disappear" said the Master.

"Everything that appears is perfect as is and is continually changing and hence not the absolute truth, once you recognise this then that which you perceive becomes yet another perspective of the illusion. The more broader your perspective, the less entangled you are in that which appears as an illusion. For example he who has lived his entire life in a village, sees everything from the perspective of the village, but he who has travelled across villages and towns and cities will have a more broader perspective. One who has travelled across multiple countries will have a still more broader perspective, but someone who has travelled across planets and galaxies, even more broader. So it is with awareness, awareness from the point of view of the ego is more broader than awareness from the point of view of the body, but awareness from the point of view of the experiencer / self is even more broader. However, when all dualistic concepts are dissolved, the perspective that remains is that which is the broadest of all - that of oneness. Everything at its core is one and when one realises this, which is everyone's natural state of being, there are no two, the mental structure of me, mine, ego, etc are all dropped. This change will begin to happen as one becomes more present, the actions that one takes are not by or for me and you, but for the only one and it is then that a shift in perspective occurs " said the Master.

"Any activity that is carried out from a perspective of oneness is going to be all inclusive, full of love, creativity, natural and wholesome, it will be free from doer ship and hence free from all entanglements. This is the perspective from which everything must be perceived and acted upon. Remember you are emptiness and the perspective from this is the broadest, but you are also the various forms, which is limited, with limited perspectives.

All form based perspectives are sub-sets of this broader perspective and consequently lead to bondage and entanglements. Once this is known all you both need to do is be aware of which perspective you are operating from and try to adopt the perspective of the experiencer as a minimum, even if you can't operate from presence. The tip here is to continually remind yourself by asking the question 'what perspective am I perceiving things from now ?' or alternatively ask yourself the question 'what am I thinking right now ?' and you will discover, you instantly become present for a few seconds or a minute. 

You are both doing well, continue your practice and come back to me in a month" said the Master.

Both Jack and Jill thanked and bowed to the Master and took his leave, walking out of the monastery, keen to apply what they had learnt in their day to day lives.

As they walked past the monastery, there on the monastery gates, on a black board they saw the following thought of the day and it resonated with their learnings today.

"It is easy to believe we are each a wave and forget we are also the ocean" 

 Spiritual Journey (part 1) - Relationship, Spiritual Journey (part 2) - Emptiness