WHAT IS HERE AND NOW





"Be not upset of something there, and seek not something not there."

Bhushan, a dear friend of mine, suggested this morning that I wrote on this line.

I have read this line a couple of times ever since Bhushan sent it to me. But, each time I read it, like a mirage, it eludes me!

I come close to it; it escapes!

But then, every thing in life is a perception… Two people may see two different things when they try to perceive the same thing…

Just like those six blind men having their own experiences on touching the elephant!

So, let me go through Bhushan’s line for arriving at my own ‘elephant experience’. Here I go.

“Be not upset of something there.”

And seek not something not there.”

When I seek something, I form the web of attachment around me. In attachment, there is this seed of fear of losing what I am attached to… With this fear come my insecurity, sorrow and pain.

What we seek is just an illusion: We hope to reach a particular station in life – ‘there’ – to be happy… When the job comes, money comes, house comes, marriage happens, children come, when they get education, jobs and when they make their houses, get married, have their children…  Yes, we hope to become happy when we reach ‘there’. And, when we do, it is not there… It is an illusion. We become sad, upset…

So, unless you see the happiness in the present condition – the here and now – it is futile and frustrating to seek it out ‘there’…

It is not there…

Stop seeking there…

Seek here… and, seek now…

Else, you will be upset when you find what is there!

Bhushan’s line sounds like a Zen quote. It reminds me of one more famous Zen passage, very close on its heels:

“If you love something,
Set it free.
If it comes back,
It is yours;
If it doesn’t,
It never was!”

And, this Zen pearl, too:

“When you work, work; when  you rest, rest.”

So, Bhushan, probably, this is my elephant-experience. After all, we all are blind men, you see!

You touch the trunk; I touch the tail… and, let my readers touch the rest: the tusk, the ear, the belly and the leg…

We all seek what is not there, you see… And, simply, we get upset of what is there!

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Abhishek Iyer

                                                             


Comments

Vinita D'Mello said…
Very thought-provoking post, sir. Thanks. Vinita
April 8, 2013 at 8:40 AM
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