“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.” – Siddartha Guatama Buddha
Kabir – The couplet
देह धरे का दंड, सब कहु को होइ ।
ज्ञानी भोगै ज्ञान से, मूरख भोगै रोइ ॥
Transliterated:
Deh Dhare Ka Dand, Sab Kahu Ko Hoi |
Gyani Bhogai Gyan Se, Murakh Bhogai Roi ||
Translation:
As long as we have the body, its suffering comes as part of the deal – for everyone|
The learned one deals with it with acceptance, the ignorant cries out in complaint ||
My understanding:
As long as we want, the satisfaction of the demand brings with it a price. If I want joy, there is a payload of sorrow attached. The sorrow may not directly be for me, but then it will show up in someone close to me, and their sorrow will give me grief as a result. Pleasure is always attached to pain. Calmness stays connected to agitation. Orthodoxy is closely related to unorthodoxy. Right is born from wrong, and stays as a conjoined twin.
As a wise man said, the golden deer attracts, but its possession brings with it the inherent possession of its not-so-golden baggage of negativity and bad karma. As long as I crave for anything, the satisfaction of the craving still leaves me the loser ultimately.
So the goals of becoming calm, peaceful, understanding, stable, physically satisfied and finding centered-ness are all but intermediate goals, steps to help us move closer to an understanding of the true self, and not an end unto themselves. Each is a step in the right direction – not the final step into bliss. The closer we get, the stronger are the distractions and the drag of attractions striving to get us off the path to bliss. Each step of progress is meant to give us greater strength to stave off the distraction and overcome temptation.
Hence, it is truly critical to learn to focus on learning the lessons at each stage and simultaneously learn to conserve power and build stamina. From the physical aspect, this means to build the ability to ignore the claims of the body demanding food (initially just food, but then quickly followed by specific taste demands), sleep (and then laziness), comfort, pleasant sounds and praise of the physical self. At a mental level, these translate to increasing focus on the understanding of the self, ignoring all other input. For once the self is truly understood, we learn to become the observer and stop being a participant. That is when action happens because it is needed, not because we want it or will it. And so that is the next stage to aim for!