Instant Karma

My recent summer vacation was very satisfying. Plenty of sunshine, a few surprise showers, tons of mangoes, evenings at the beach, home-made food, good books to read, catching up with old friends and lots and lots of time spent with family. I especially loved being able to chat for hours with A, unhurriedly, and on anything that came to mind. I will recount here a thought process that arose from one particular conversation. It started with movies, and wound up touching upon the Virtue of the Month- Patience, life, death, faith, rebirth, action, karma and individual beliefs in a higher spiritual energy. Yes, that's a whole lot, and some very serious topics that came up from an observation about movies! Here's how it all started.
I had a sudden flash about what's most satisfying about watching movies. Many of you probably already knew this, but it is something that just occurred to me at the time :). Within the 2-3 hours that a movie lasts, every form of retribution is there to be had; the good guys win, the bad guys get punished, love is seldom unrequited, wishes are answered, dreams fulfilled, families reunited, all kinds of knots untangled and loose ends tied up. And yes, I am only referring to the more popular feel good movies, not the art-house or film-noir kind. But, the former are very, very satisfying.
I began to wonder though, if belief in an eternal spirit and in abiding with good, faith in the face of trials and tribulations, especially when confronted with situations where misdeeds go unquestioned and the kind are vilified, would not be easier if the time span over which karma operated was to be dramatically compressed. Is it perhaps the inability to believe in something beyond our physical mortality that prevents us from believing in the need for goodness? Would the classic questions of who knows if there's an after-life/ why should I believe when there is no justice in this situation/ how can there be grace when there is so much suffering/... vanish if consequences were immediate or more readily apparent to both the body and spirit in ways that each individual can understand? Would we all be better doers and stronger believers if karma were instant?
Then again, perhaps things are as they are, just so that we may be patient, we may forgive, we may have faith, we may do good for the sake of it and nothing else and despite everything that seems out of balance in the world around us...:)

The virtue of the month...

The virtue chosen this month is perseverance and persistence. This personal platform for goal-setting and thinking deeply has run dry in the last several months. And so, today I resolve that one of the many tasks for me to persevere on will be to continue with the spirit of inquiry and internalization of the virtue chosen each month and to share any thoughts that arise from the process. In the meantime, I leave you with a few lines from Khayyam's Rubaiyat, which I discovered in my current read: 'Three Cups of Tea'

Why ponder thus the future to foresee,
and jade thy brain to vain perplexity?
Cast off thy care, leave Allah's plans to him-
He formed them all without consulting thee.

A very playful and yet humbling way to ask one to be present in the moment and to accept every moment as it turns over to the future.

The virtue of this month...

This is the month of punctuality, or of being on time. I would like to think of it, also, as the month of doing things in their appointed time. And by that I mean that while this season is, of all seasons, the season to give, there are others times that aren't overtly celebrated as such. But an hour of need for one person, must be the season of giving for another, no? Perhaps, these quotes then will express both succinctly and beautifully what I wish to convey, and so I share...

--

From the Thirukkural, verse 102:

காலத்தி நாற்செய்த நன்றி சிறிதெனினும்,

ஞாலத்தின் மாணப்பெரிது.

(Help rendered in an hour of need, be it however small, is greater than all the earth in its value.- Thiruvalluvar)

--

Liberality consists rather in giving seasonably than much.

- Jean de La Bruyère

--

A Time for Everything

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace...

--

And finally 'tis the season to be jolly, my dears! Fa la la la la...la la la la! :)

The virtue of each VOTM

Our little VOTM sangha has tried every month to pick a virtue that would help each of us grow in some way, practice a noble quality, take a step closer to a higher reality and learn new ways of giving and loving. Some virtues have been easier to assimilate than have others, for sure. The very process of picking a virtue has been educative- for instance, sometimes, I have wondered if something is even a virtue. For instance, happiness. Or decisiveness (which is the VOTM of July :) btw).
Just struggling with conflicting urges of wanting to express that thought while also wanting to do my best to see how a thing of real value lies buried in applying that month's virtue has been a useful exercise for me. Along the way, understanding what makes a friend resonate deeply with a chosen virtue has helped me understand my friends better too. After all, life's lessons come in many different shapes and forms and this intentional process of picking a virtue has brought with it a new surprise lesson every time!
And this is what I have realized, especially for the selections I've had to make an effort to get my head around.
(Now this might be VOTM 101 for many of you, but for me it was an important realization and hence share I shall.)

What makes a virtue a virtue then? Let me take the example of happiness. At first I had thought to myself surely, this can't be a virtue! I mean, what's to practice?...
It took me a while to recognize that it is what brings forth happiness and indeed, where the true source of it lies- in divine grace- is what imbues happiness with virtue. Digging deep within to identify what brings happiness, what is ephemeral and what is truly lasting, what is a result of our conditioning from a material perspective and what is necessary for our spiritual growth- indeed, that is the virtue of happiness.

Is it not true that the sunlight streaming in through the window every morning makes me sing with utter joy? Indeed, every breath I take is an act of mercy of that Supreme being; the very flowers and birds that bring a smile upon my face, His gift to mankind; the love of family and friends, a blessing most precious, the source of greatest joy. To know happiness then is to know gratitude; it is to know contentment.

Is it not equally true that the things I cherish most cannot be measured or quantified by the sum total of all my worldly possessions? To know happiness then is to know what is material and dispensable and what is of far greater value than that.

Can I deny that in my moments of weakness and fear, it is only prayer that brings me strength and inner peace? Should I not know then that there can be no room for grief when I submit entirely to His will? No room for misery if I recognize courage and acceptance, detachment and wisdom, come from the same eternal being, and from whose love arises true joy and bliss. To know happiness then is to know the most essential truth.

--

You might wonder why I have waxed eloquent on happiness six months after the fact. Well, it is because despite the light bulb going off in my head then, I was seized by the same confusion when it came the turn of decisiveness! God knows, I need to practice it more than anybody. But the virtue part of it still bothered me. Until I remembered what S always said to me about decision analysis and Vedanta being one and the same. And truly it is. A decision cannot be judged based on its outcome but only on how it was made, given the information one had at the time. In some ways, this really brings a very important facet of detachment home. Not just that, efficient decision-making process demands objective reasoning, setting priorities and accepting unknowns. From a spiritual standpoint, if one always remembered to go through, say, a goodness checklist, one should never have an ethical dilemma, yeah? :) In other words, checking for 'good, kind and necessary' is not only a worthwhile gating process for speech, but for every decision that we make. Understanding what makes something good and why there is no exception to being kind at all times and doing this consciously at every turn, can only give greater clarity and conviction and before you know it a decision must emerge! And therein lies the virtue of decisiveness.

Change and Trust

The message of trusting that, no matter what, greater good lies ahead was reiterated to me last week in surprising and novel ways. One of them came in the form a book that was being passed around our lab in response to some rapid re-structuring within our business division at work- 'Who moved my cheese'. An incredibly short & simple read, it could easily be included under the category of children's classics. The crux of the book is that change happens, inveitably. The healthy way to deal with it knowing that it will happen, is to anticipate it, trust that it will lead to something better, and gather the skills to deal with whatever that change leads to. At first, I found the comic style story-telling too simplistic, almost dismissing further thinking. Thankfully, I caught that very impulse to dismiss arise and decided to do some further thinking. I am glad I did (and it helps to have wonderful friends who ask that I do no less :), thank you my dears!).

What I came away with after all the ruminating is:

To trust in God means to trust that He would not send any test our way if He did not know that we could overcome them. Trusting is thus an act of supplication to His wisdom and care.

To trust that things will only turn out better is committing to find lessons in every change and test to make ourselves the better for it.

To trust is to remember that we are never lacking for His constant support and guidance.

To trust in God, is to trust one another; to know that He reveals Himself through ordinary miracles and to be open to His signs.

And to trust one another, means to love one another unconditionally and fearlessly.

Appa's words of wisdom for his girls:
Good things happen to us,
Just not in the same dimension we imagined.
So, have faith and give a prayer of thanks!

Faith

Life is no straight and easy corridor along which we travel free and unhampered,

but a maze of passages,

through which we must seek our way,

lost and confused,

now and again checked in a blind alley.

But always, if we have faith,

God will open a door for us,

not perhaps one that we ourselves would have thought of,

but one that will ultimately prove good for us.

- A. J. Cronin

For this, the month of trust, in God, in you,

in all things good and all things true...

http://aftertheafterthought.blogspot.com/2008/07/father-i-place-into-your-hands.html

For the month of Sacrifice that was...

For the lesson it reiterated for me on its last day, for the ideal of striving to let go of attachment it reinforced, for the test of loving spiritually that it brought, I am grateful. I am grateful to the joy that loved ones bring in life and leave in memory, for the blessing it is to have love around us. I pray that we may all live such lives that take us ever closer to the Eternal Light. I pray that we may all live by the ideal of this gentle prayer of the Saint Francis of Assisi.

"O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life."