The Basics

To succeed, one must get the basics right.

Let us take living as the art and the science then. To succeed, the basics have to be right.

As per hindu tradition , there are two ways in which a human being can live.
One is the life of the man of the world, the householder. The other , of the spiritually dedicated reculse.

Let me enumerate the high priority virtues successful living in the world entails :
In no particular order
1) Proactivity and Action Orientation
2) Industry and Creativity in Action and Thought
3) Self Confidence of a Positive Variety
4) Vigour
5) Moral Fortitude in the face of temptation to ethical incorrectness


Let me contrast these with what are higher priorities for a reclusive life

1) Critical Thinking and very strong mental fortitude in face of any tempations.
2) 'Vairagya' or Mental Renuncation of Mind and Materials
3) Sense Restraint
4) Confidence of a negative variety as far as things of the world go. That is to say, surety of what doesn't work.
5) Positive confidence in the ideals of Absolute Freedom / God / Spirit, something genuinely free as the case may be

Clearly i haven't got my priorities sorted out right now.
Most of my effort and habit is clearly towards the reclusive life.
However, i am directly involved in the worldly life.

What is the solution to this problem.

Clearly, i must master one of the two sets of virtues first and decide my priorities.

This is a very tough question is all i can say right now.

Conscious Identification and the Spiritual Life

This is one concept i use a lot in my cogitations and i'll explain it today

The condition of conscious identifiaction is when we identify with an idea , a sensation, a desire sufficiently to make it self evident.

In its more gross form, this exhibits as craving, as in the craving of a child for a chocolate. He wants it and theres nothing on earth that can prove this false to him. I know from subjective experience how craving feels.

In adults it has many manisfestation. An adult's honour is a pretty self evident thing for him, he needs no proof for it.

So there are many ways in which we identify. For the majority of us, our desires, our fears, our social identity are all selfevident. Therefore, there are things we dearly want and things we'd want to avoid at any cost.

These identifications may change too. Someone desires a particular outcome at one point and may desire the opposite at another.

The spiritual life aims at giving us charge of these identifications. The classical buddhist and advaitist traditions aim at breaking all identities that we preserve and wish to preserve.

It is an open question for me to determine the desirability of identification and to see if some identities are more desirable than others.

what this is

what i feel is strange,
i feel ignorant and in the dark.

bound to the gross i am,
cannot think beyond this body.

bound by chains,
which run me over.

i don't see freedom,
the end of all this circus.

i try to be good and correct,
succeed a bit at that do i.

i try to see what can be seen,
understand what can be understood.

yet i see no rest,
yet i see no truth.

i surrender to this state,
i do not know what this is.

The Way Ahead

My conversations and thought process has been greared totally towards the way ahead and there are a lot of ideas i have generated

I have realized that there is a need to just keep pushing the bar higher for myself,

in terms of

1. The efforts i can make in a professional capacity
2. My understanding of the world and my ability to cope with daily life.
3. The kind of care and understanding i can give to the people around me.
4. Spiritual understanding and the quality and quantity of abstract contemplation i do.
5. The quality of peace i experience ( i think i can largely determine it), which is largely a function of mindfulness.

I have realized that the abstract and the concrete need to be attended to equally.
I shall explore these different themes in my following posts.

Is this the way i am constructed

In a lighter vien and a serious one as well,

i am thinking that theres is one thing i can do really well.
and that is to not do what can be done without!!
i can safely ignore negative thoughts, i can not identify with things, i can resist negative emotions, i can avoid saying falsities and harsh words. i know what false logic is. i know how not to approach work and life. i know what doesn't work.

Then i wonder, maybe this is the way i am constructed.

But i also want to be able to say the right things, come up with and implements ideas that work, experience and experience positive emotions, say affirmative truths and work with sound logic.
i find my positive side to be highly underdeveloped than my penchant for negativity(rather my ability to handle and live with it so well).

That would make things a lot better i think.