Maybe other people also wonder about the most essential thing in our existence, and after some thought I realized that this thing is ATTENTION. To illustrate this here are some quotes:
A new follower joined a spiritual master, after greeting his master he asked “Teacher, please tell me which is the most important thing for me now that I have started my spiritual practice?”. The master replied “The most important thing for you is to develop and enhance you attention”. The follower thanked for the answer and left the room. However, 10 minutes later he returned with another question “Teacher, please forgive me for returning so soon, but can you tell me what else do I have to do besides develop and enhance my attention?”. The master answered “Besides developing and enhancing your attention you need to intensify and perfect your attention”. The next day the follower returned with another question “Teacher, I anxiously want to know which is the next step after intensifying and perfecting my attention?”. The master replied “You have to make your attention more profound and accurate”. After a few moments the follower said “Teacher, I thank you for this important advice, but what else do I have to do besides developing my attention?”. The master answered “My dear, you have to focus your attention firmly and continuously on your body, its organs and functions, on the sensations, on the manifestations of your mind and on the psychical projections that appear spontaneously in your being.”
Publilius Syrus:
“The eyes of a human being are as if blind when his mind is wandering elsewhere or when it is firmly focused somewhere else.”
Joule R…..:
“If we look around us we realize that the modern man, as he is build by the civilization and by the mental methods employed by the society, has no idea about the importance of attention.”
Seneca:
“A big part of our life we send making evil deeds, another important part of our life we send doing nothing, the biggest part of our life we live without thinking about what we are doing. The lack of attention in the majority of people is amazing.”
Swami Sivananda:
“Because most of the time people don’t pay attention to what they are doing, most people are absent in many of their actions.”
Joule Renald:
“Happiness passes us by frequently, but because we don’t pay attention, most of the time we don’t even realize it.”
One late evening I decided I can’t wait for everybody to come and I will head out first, that means alone. So, bright and early the next morning I was on the train traveling towards my favorite destination: a mountain. After I changed into something more appropriate I began my solitary climb. On this perfectly still and sunny day I remembered the words of a particular man:
“Are you alone here?
No, I’m not alone. We are never alone.”
As his wise words said, I was climbing by myself, but not alone. Someone was looking out for me: perfect weather, no wind, sun shining, fresh tracks leading to our lodgings. In fact it seamed that sometime later a nice bear joined my tracks.
Soon followed my first night in solitude, just me, myself and I, not a soul for a great distance. I really wanted this experience so I would never again be afraid of being alone and it proved to be interesting.
This needs to be further detailed, but I’m too tired for it now.
To be continued…
Yes, still dwelling on attachments.Today’s reminder came from this little puppy now residing in the kitchen. When I go in and play with it his just a bundle of joy, but as soon as I walk out the door and leave him he starts to cry louder and louder, eventually he stops. This little creature is very happy when someone is around onto who to direct all his love and playfulness, however he becomes sad, and maybe even miserable, when there’s no one around to whom to give his love and from whom to receive love and attention. I find this aspect every interesting, not only on such a small scale as that of this pet, but on the larger scale of human relationships, dependencies and conditioning. I want to discover how and why is this need for direct, physical contact between to individual used to ensure a level of happiness, of fulfilment. However, I don’t know where to start…
One bitter-sweet weekend’s conclusion:
…journey to the inner, journey to the inner, that sounds really nice and pretty, but how are you working on your attachments and dependencies?…
At this stage, and I’m sure that, let’s say, 98,5% of everybody on this planet will agree with me, life is very beautiful, it’s actually unbelievably wonderful when your with your special someone spending time together, loving each other in whatever way you like. But when that special someone is not physically next to you for an extended amount of time life begins to look less and less pretty. I call this happiness depending on somebody else than you. Even shorter: dependency.
Now, how can you really be happy when you depend on somebody else to be happy? Yes, one goes, another one that’s the empty seat, and so on. Or, you find “happiness” in some activity, saying you don’t depend on anyone to be happy. However, there always is some exterior thing that conditions your state of happiness. That is still a dependency.
I’m referring here to “you”, but in fact I’m in the same place, maybe with the slight differences that I’m contemplating the thought of somehow transcending this not so fortunate state.
For the time being I’m contemplating, I don’t really know how to proceed. However, I do have a more or less wise thought: live it to the fullest until you reach “saturation” and thus you transcend that particular need!
- I’m going to climb Aconcagua!
- That’s nice. Good for you!
Google-ing for Aconcagua only to find that it doesn’t look all that attractive. A mix of rock and snow/ice. So the days pass, Aconcagua sinks into the shadows of forget, until one very boring/tiring day. What to do to make the time pass easier? Answer: google Aconcagua. Minutes later the phone is ringing:
- Do you mind if I do some research for your expedition in Aconcagua?
- Are you a mind reader? That would be great!
Reading site after journal, google-ing route after base camp, buses after gear rental fees, taking to all sorts of shop keepers, park officers and climbers, bumping into guide books, pictures and videos.
And the outcome? One big desire for an expedition of my own. Researching, planning, packing, traveling through the mountains, looking forward anxiously to start climbing, climbing, becoming tired, overcoming all obstacles, reaching your goal: the summit, stop, breath, enjoy, and back down full with an overwhelming feeling of achievement, leaving with a heart full of…well full of everything that can’t be put into words. I miss that. But when did I ever do that on such a big scale?
That’s what I want, that feeling that can’t be put into words.
Many people who have come to respect the mountain talk about it as if it were a being with a soul of its own who allows some to climb it, and who punished others for defying it. The mountain teaches many lessons to those who dare to climb it and who are sufficiently aware to “read” its signs.
The other day a run across an interview with a mountaineer who had climbed Makalu, this man had a very interesting motto: “Climbing mountains outside is climbing mountains inside”. This perspective is a real eye-opener and a few days ago I had an encounter with the “mountain”. He was very “friendly” until we were two thirds to its peak, when he decided to hide behind a thick layer of fog. Upon seeing this I thought to myself if we should push on, maybe the mountain was telling us that now is not the moment for that peak. A friend said “The mountain teaches us that sometimes we have to give up and try another day”. Maybe that was the lesson for that day, since we all decided that it’s better to decent rather that climb a peak and be denied the beauty of its view, that being our ultimate purpose for that ascent.
I love the mountain and I’m always mesmorized by its beauty, but I think that our ego shouldn’t get the best of us when climbing. In fact, we should eliminate our ego and be one with the mountain in order to enjoy its beauty to the maximum.
I, I, I and again I. Well that’s it, it’s all about “I”. I was blessed with a fairytale walk in the snow on beautiful sunny day. That’s about it. I didn’t have any revelation, I didn’t find any fundamental questions related to my earthy existence, I only enjoyed a walk in the snow.
If I stop and think about it, there’s always a lesson to learn. For instance, I took a map and I picked a destination for our walk in the snow. As a reference I counted three bridges over the river before the entrance to the gorge we wanted to trek. However, while we were driving everybody was asking me “Are you sure?” and as the third bridge wasn’t showing itself I began to doubt if we would find the gorge. But something told me “Have a little bit of faith!” and I realized that’s my lesson, I have to have more faith in the fact that things will happen eventually, at the right moment. And the third bridge did come up, and soon fallowed the entrance to the gorge we wanted to trek. So, if you wait all will be revealed at the right time.
I found these very beautiful words and I just couldn’t keep them to myself:
Happiness is when the grass grows
Happiness is like a sun ray, which enters inside your tent and caresses your face
Happiness is a clear sky on a day when you decided to run on a field
Happiness is when you want to cuddle sleepy in someone’s arms
Happiness is when the leaves fall while you’re pick-nicking in the park
Happiness is when you remember how happy you are when you love
If you take someone who has a lot of work to do, that someone might tell you that he or she would like to have nothing to work. On the other hand, if you take someone who has nothing to work, you might find that he or she eventually will want to do something, because it ends up to be extremely tiring to have nothing to work.
Well, that’s me. I hate to have nothing to do. I actually wonder if I could stay still for too long. Yes, for a limited amount of time I can be patient, but eventually I have to do something.
Now I’m waiting for something to do, something challenging…
For some time now I’ve been thinking about limits. At first, I thought I had an idea what limits are, and how you might be able to define the “border” that represents a limit. A few days ago I had the chance to experience a very demanding climb that challenged my physical endurance limits. While I stepped from the region of comfort and pleasure into the region of physical and psychical endurance I began to ask myself a few questions, making parallels between this climb and the “climbs” in life.
It all started in a beautifully divine valley where I laid on the ground, while the sun was hugging me in his warm light. From that valley we visualized an imaginary path to a peak towering one of the edges of the valley. We started to climb on one of it’s ridges with the peak in sight, however, the climb proved to be longer then initially expected, and as I got closed to the peak it became more demanding. Soon the peak disappeared from sight and I couldn’t estimate how much I had to climb to reach it. While I was making this climb I realized that this is what happens in life: we set ourselves a goal, we visualize the path to achieving that goal and we start our endeavor. We don’t really know what challenges await us, but we go on leaded by our goal which remains in sight. However, the closer we come to it, the more elusive it seams, and at one moment it disappears for sight altogether. Then our perseverance kicks in, and our will power keeps us going eventhough all our efforts seam in vain. So we go on and when we least expected we realize that we’ve reached our goal, we’re on top of the peak with the entire valley at our feet. But in order to reach the peak we have to challenge our limitation…
All in all, I still don’t know how to define “limits”, but I’m challenging mine whenever I can.