THE DEEP OCEAN
They say, "The calmness of the ocean depends on its depth."
That's why, the ocean is so restless near the shore. It is, always, the periphery, the shallow shore, that is restless, agitated.
This morning, my wife said something, and I flared up. The fume lasted for, almost, an hour... But, now, the ship has moved much away from the shore ... The waters are still here; there is calm.
The READER'S DIGEST has sent me a small book as a gift for renewing my annual subscription. It is titled: "HOW TO WIN ANY ARGUMENT".(Publisher: JAICO BOOKS.) The author, Mr. Robert Mayer, has given the sub-title as: 'Don't raise your voice, lose your cool or come to blows.'
Well, except for the blows, everything else happened, this morning!
So, I thought, I would read the book again. And, Lo! This little phrase stood out:
'THE STILL CENTER'!
Mr. Mayer extensively quotes ancient Masters from the East - the Indian, Japanese and Chinese. One of the quotes is of The Tao Te Ching:
"Mastering others requires force;
Mastering the self needs strength."
In my case, even the 'force' did not come to my help as far as 'mastering' my wife was concerned! So, I have decided to give up that pursuit. Maybe, when I am able to 'master' the self, I may be able to 'master' her, too! Let us see.
One thing is clear to me. For a ship to experience a calm, unagitated sea, it has to take a decision to move away from the shore which is volatile, even violent. It has to position itself on the 'still waters' of the deep ocean. There is no other way in which it can experience that peace, that silence. It takes those initial crucial moments - that risk, that courage, that vision and will - to achieve that. Above all, it takes that mighty desire, that intent.
All Masters tell us, that the only way to 'access' this 'still center' - the eye of the storm - is through meditation. Well, in the marine terminology, it is called - 'anchoring'. Our spiritual and Yoga teachers call it - 'Centering'.
I am also clear, that my agitation, my reaction, came from the fact that I wasn't centered enough, this morning. If I had, I would have, certainly, operated from the position of my 'strength', and not from that of my 'weakness'. Mr. Deepak Chopra beautifully illustrates this process through an example. He describes: what meditation does for our minds is just what washing does for a 'dirty' piece of cloth - Cleansing. You keep soaking and washing it, till there are no stains seen on it ... till it becomes what it was before - 'Pure white'.
Yes, my mind is that dirty piece of cloth. It needs to make a thousand more rounds to the 'dhobi ghat'!
Jiddu Krishnamurti and Osho - particularly the former - talk about a different form of meditation. It is known as - if at all by any name - 'Seeing'. They say, that you can not 'see' a tree 'fully and clearly' by standing close to it ... You have to stand sufficiently away from it, you need to 'detach', 'declutch', yourself from it.
I like this kind of meditation; I like to sit under a 'pepper tree' instead of 'the Bodhi tree'. Who knows, maybe after a thousand 'dulais' - and after a thousand blog postings - I may be able to experience the bliss of cruising along that 'still center'... and, smile like a 'Buddha' - every time my wife tries to 'stir' this ocean ... so faithfully!
Yes, who knows!
GERALD D'CUNHA
That's why, the ocean is so restless near the shore. It is, always, the periphery, the shallow shore, that is restless, agitated.
This morning, my wife said something, and I flared up. The fume lasted for, almost, an hour... But, now, the ship has moved much away from the shore ... The waters are still here; there is calm.
The READER'S DIGEST has sent me a small book as a gift for renewing my annual subscription. It is titled: "HOW TO WIN ANY ARGUMENT".(Publisher: JAICO BOOKS.) The author, Mr. Robert Mayer, has given the sub-title as: 'Don't raise your voice, lose your cool or come to blows.'
Well, except for the blows, everything else happened, this morning!
So, I thought, I would read the book again. And, Lo! This little phrase stood out:
'THE STILL CENTER'!
Mr. Mayer extensively quotes ancient Masters from the East - the Indian, Japanese and Chinese. One of the quotes is of The Tao Te Ching:
"Mastering others requires force;
Mastering the self needs strength."
In my case, even the 'force' did not come to my help as far as 'mastering' my wife was concerned! So, I have decided to give up that pursuit. Maybe, when I am able to 'master' the self, I may be able to 'master' her, too! Let us see.
One thing is clear to me. For a ship to experience a calm, unagitated sea, it has to take a decision to move away from the shore which is volatile, even violent. It has to position itself on the 'still waters' of the deep ocean. There is no other way in which it can experience that peace, that silence. It takes those initial crucial moments - that risk, that courage, that vision and will - to achieve that. Above all, it takes that mighty desire, that intent.
All Masters tell us, that the only way to 'access' this 'still center' - the eye of the storm - is through meditation. Well, in the marine terminology, it is called - 'anchoring'. Our spiritual and Yoga teachers call it - 'Centering'.
I am also clear, that my agitation, my reaction, came from the fact that I wasn't centered enough, this morning. If I had, I would have, certainly, operated from the position of my 'strength', and not from that of my 'weakness'. Mr. Deepak Chopra beautifully illustrates this process through an example. He describes: what meditation does for our minds is just what washing does for a 'dirty' piece of cloth - Cleansing. You keep soaking and washing it, till there are no stains seen on it ... till it becomes what it was before - 'Pure white'.
Yes, my mind is that dirty piece of cloth. It needs to make a thousand more rounds to the 'dhobi ghat'!
Jiddu Krishnamurti and Osho - particularly the former - talk about a different form of meditation. It is known as - if at all by any name - 'Seeing'. They say, that you can not 'see' a tree 'fully and clearly' by standing close to it ... You have to stand sufficiently away from it, you need to 'detach', 'declutch', yourself from it.
I like this kind of meditation; I like to sit under a 'pepper tree' instead of 'the Bodhi tree'. Who knows, maybe after a thousand 'dulais' - and after a thousand blog postings - I may be able to experience the bliss of cruising along that 'still center'... and, smile like a 'Buddha' - every time my wife tries to 'stir' this ocean ... so faithfully!
Yes, who knows!
GERALD D'CUNHA
Comments
the ocean has to be discovered, not invented...