moments of emptiness

Verse 3.42: The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and he [the soul] is even higher than the intelligence.

We live in a world of contradictions. Although we are supposedly more connected than ever due to cell phones, internet, social media and so many other tools, many are noticing that their relationships are getting increasingly impersonal. Despite advances in technology that are supposed to be making our lives easier, we find more people out of work these days due to those very systems and instruments. Maybe the most frighting of all - in spite of so much knowledge available out there, it seems that many people are more confused than ever...about everything!

Living with confusion and uncertainty without proper guidance or a path inevitably leads to looking for shelter in all the wrong places. It's at these times that mass consumerism and lust can easily sway our troubled hearts.

It's so easy to take shelter in the senses as they serve to distract us from what many of us feel inside:

Our heart is crying out for more.

There lies the problem for many. What is that "more" that the heart is crying out for? If we don't know, we continue to try to find "it" in so many different ways. For some, it may mean finding new and novel ways to give pleasure to the senses. Frustrated or bored with that, it could mean turning to philosophy or speculation and trying to engage and stimulate the intellect. If that fails, then others may turn to philanthropy or even solitude.

To no avail, many who face this emptiness try to hide it under the cover of being busy, yet never really feel satisfied. But we learn to play the game and put on a happy face, right?

Well...for those who are tired of this useless game, a solution is given today. However, it requires a shift in consciousness to say:

"I'm done with living with that gnawing feeling of emptiness and frustration that I've pushed into the recesses of my heart. I'm also done with deluding myself that temporary happiness is enough and am ready to recognize that I deserve eternal happiness and will do what it takes to get it!"

That shift in consciousness will allow us to make another crucial change. Our energy tends to be focused on the senses and how to satisfy them. When we transfer our attention to the intelligence and feed that, a whole new world opens up. By feeding the intelligence with spiritual knowledge, like that given in the Gita, we start to fill in a much needed gap.

Remember that proper guide or path that may be missing? Here it is. The intelligence is supposed to act as the guide by taking shelter of an empowered teacher and being absorbed in the wisdom of bhakti yoga (i.e. the process to connect through love). This way, if the mind tries to take us down our usual path of trying to get a quick fix, the intelligence can actually step in and provide the proper guidance and support that needed to get out of that vicious cycle; furthermore, it will help us on our quest to achieve eternal happiness.

Ultimately, the only thing that will make us happy is genuine and meaningful soul-soul connections. The soul craves relationship, love and service. When it is covered by lust it mistakenly thinks it can get that by ignoring the one person who can give all of that - the Divine.

The path is clear. All it requires is a change of consciousness. The question remains - do you want eternal happiness and are you ready to do what it takes to get it?

tired of the same old?

Verse 3.41: Therefore, O Arjuna, best of the Bhāratas, in the very beginning curb this great symbol of sin [lust] by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of knowledge and self-realization.

Find yourself doing the same old things again and again and not really feeling any happier? I was reflecting on this yesterday night as I caught myself falling into the trap of doing the same old things that honestly don't help increase my happiness levels. After all, let's be perfectly honest - most of us want to be happy and there's nothing wrong with that!

It may seem contradictory, but the advice we hear today of regulating the senses can lead to new experiences, fun AND has the benefit of progressing in our path of self-discovery. It's not as limiting as one might think.

For some of us, it means taking a good hard look at our lives and asking, "What makes me happy?" In fact, it's an exercise I'd encourage everyone to do. Take a piece of paper and write down what you do in your free time. Now, write down on a scale of 1-10 how happy those activities make you. It could be anything from eating, hanging out with friends, sleeping etc... Got that down...well now comes the tough question:

How long does that happiness last?

That's the question we should really be asking. It's become enough to just feel happy, no matter how temporary it may be. But yoga isn't about getting second rate things, it's about getting the best. The best is finding those things that will sustain our happiness.

Regulating the senses means to stop settling for second best.

Practically speaking, it means recognizing that happiness comes from service as opposed to selfishness. It ties back into the concept of non-attachment and gratitude. After all -

A life of happiness is directly proportional to the gratitude that we feel and express.

When we are covered over by lust, we feel the need to possess and control things because we are feeling empty. Gratitude, on the other hand, paves the way to invoking the love that is lying within us and fills us with it. It reminds us that we are recipients of great gifts, talents, and facility.

Regulating the senses means to utilize our senses in expressing gratitude to the Divine for giving us so much. Instead of trying to satisfy our own senses, which are limited and are always hankering for more, we can utilize our senses to convey how grateful we are. It's a matter of changing our attitude.

In the beginning, it can simple as expressing positive words to one another since we recognize that we are all part of a spiritual family, incorporating a compassionate vegetarian lifestyle or praying on behalf of loved ones. As our thoughts become filled with positivity and appreciation, a positive feedback loop starts to form. We experience a profound internal happiness that can't compete with the temporary pleasures we experienced before. That gratitude becomes a permanent fixture in our lives and we'll see more than our mind-sets and attitudes change - we'll actually become (and remain) happy.

one of my favorite verses!

Verse 2.14: O son of Kuntī, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.

I'm so happy! Today I get to write about one of my top three ABSOLUTE favorite verses of the Gita. Verse 2.14. Why do I love this verse....oh probably for a million different reasons. I'll share the top five that came to mind today.

1. It's so beautiful. From a purely literary standpoint, this verse screams poetic. The imagery is just so vivid. Can you not just picture the melting of the snow, the warmth of the sun, the coldness of a windy, screaming blizzard and the scorching heat on a mid-summer's afternoon? These images mimic so beautifully our own experiences of feeling happiness and distress.

2. I love similes. For those of you who might have forgotten the rules of English (hehehe!) a simile is used when comparing two things using "like" or "as". In this case Krsna is comparing our experiences/feelings to seasons.

3. The reminder that happiness and distress are non-permanent is so expertly conveyed here. Everyone can relate to the winter and summer seasons having a definite beginning and an end, right? (Though that being said, sometimes Canadian winters do seem to drag on forever!) We often hear people say, "I can't wait for Spring," or conversely "I can't wait until Winter is over!" The thing is when it comes to experiencing feelings of happiness or sadness, we forget that the same temporariness applies during our actual experience of them. When someone is up they are really up and often feel like nothing can bring them down, but conversely the opposite is so true as well. Krsna is so sweetly and kindly reminding us of that fact and saying, "Hey! Don't get too caught up in those waves of highs and lows."

4. An extremely important truth is brought here. The idea that happiness and distress arise due to sense perception. What does that mean? One way of looking at is that one person's pleasure is another person's pain. Hence, there is no such thing (in the material world) of absolute happiness or absolute distress. As well, this reminds us that this happiness and distress we are experiencing is the interaction of the senses with the sense objects. It's not the soul that is actually taking pleasure or displeasure in these experiences, it is the body and mind that are decoding it as "good" or "bad".

5. So Krsna begins with a beautiful comparison that illustrates the temporariness of our enjoyment, then delves deeper by explaining exactly it arises from come from (sense perception) and then finally concludes powerfully by saying "one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed" Wow, personally, that's a pretty tall order. But before getting into that a bit deeper, let's first just rewind and unpack what "tolerate without being disturbed" actually means.

First of all, this does not propound that one shouldn't feel and/or repress one's emotions. Secondly, it is crucial to note that this phrase applies not just to our experiences of distress but ALSO those of happiness (and everything in between). That's right. One should "tolerate" happiness. So why does Krsna use the word tolerate here? He does so because he's trying to stress that these experiences actually have no impact on the soul and since we are the soul, we should tolerate them!.

The soul cannot be satisfied by anything material. Krsna is saying that everyone will have these experiences, since these experiences arise due to the bodily senses coming in contact with the sense objects. But remember! We are not our senses! So if we are not our senses, why are we investing so much time and energy and throwing ourselves into the experiences that arise due to them? Doesn't make a lot of sense does it? Instead Krsna is giving us a recommendation. Why not accept that these experiences come, but learn to be aloof. That way when these experiences come and emotions arise you can view them more objectively instead of becoming attached to them.

On the most practical level, when a bhakti yogi learns to tolerate happiness and distress, it allows him/her to become fixed in their practice of bhakti yoga. How often have we not accomplished or done something simply because we didn't "feel like it"? Furthermore, when one actually tolerates happiness and distress (go ahead and try it out for yourself!) one can see more clearly how often we attach importance to little things. This doesn't come easy and it take purification of heart, but next time you feel yourself feeling very distraught or supremely happy, take a step back. Analyze where those feelings are coming from. If you're happy, take the opportunity to thank God and if you're sad, remember that this too will pass.