Gerald D'Cunha

  “To attain knowledge, add things every day; to attain wisdom, remove things every day.” Lao Tzu   O ne of my friends, who has been a fine financial-consultant and quite a resourceful person, is now on a sabbatical. “What are you occupied with, these days?” I asked when I met him, yesterday… “Cutting vegetables and washing clothes,” he said without even blinking. “Seriously?” I asked him. “Yes, very seriously,” he asserted, “I am 63 now; and all my life, I hadn’t learnt how to cut vegetables or wash my own clothes… I feel very happy and relaxed as I do them now.” T here are so many things, as this friend of mine has found, you and I haven’t learnt/done, yes, ‘all our lives’. As another friend of mine, who is a bigshot in a corporate proudly claims, “I haven’t boiled even a glass or water”… and as another bigshot goes further and claims, “I haven’t learnt to turn on the gas stove.” So, what does this tell us? In life, we may be experts in some things and du...

  “Remember the blue sky… It may be, at times, obscured by clouds; but, it is always there.” Andy Puddicombe   I was talking to a young college-girl, yesterday. “What are your main hobbies? What activities make you happy and peaceful?” I asked her. “Sir, it is crochet,” the girl said, “I find it very relaxing.” To this young girl, it is crochet; to me, it’s my writings; to someone out there, it may be swimming, exercising, singing, poetry, reading, or, simply, sky-gazing… Each one of us pursues some activity or the other as our hobby that makes us happy and peaceful… very relaxed, as the young girl said. Our days can be frantic… running and rushing, keeping us constantly anxious… A hundred emotions, when clash inside the mind, it can drive us crazy… Only, when we slow down… step aside from our rush, we can see things ahead clearly. Katherine King puts it beautifully: “Slow down… You will get there faster.” E very activity can be done with our mindfulne...

  “Quiet the mind, and the soul will speak.” Ma Jaya Sati Bhgavati   I t’s a week now, and I haven’t written a word. Unusual? Yes and No. If I have given to people around me the impression, that writing is like breathing to me, then, it does seem unusual whenever I don’t write… “How can you stop breathing?” I hear people around me asking… Or, is it just, that I am hearing? Frankly, if I don’t write for a few days, or weeks, or months – or never write at all – how does it matter? Who cares? The thought in my head, that when I write, the lives around me brighten up is like the lightning bug who goes around with his bloated head, saying: “Hey, people are able to see because of me!” It’s also like that donkey who carries the sandalwood load proudly, claiming, “Hey, I give the world the finest fragrance!”   N othing is ‘unusual’ about our conscious silence… I may think, that I have a thousand stories to tell or a million disagreements to register… but, wh...

M usic and mediation! I, often, wonder if both are same… Early this morning, I was listening to Yani’s popular piece – ‘Nostalgia’. Frankly, when we soak in this kind of music, there is no need to meditate separately… For, music is mediation! Let me share with you some of my favourite quotes on meditation alongside some my favourite pieces of music from Yani… Hope, you, too, will say ‘Music is meditation’… “I said to my soul, ‘Be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for love would be love for the wrong thing; there is yet love, but faith and love are all in the waiting; wait without thought, for you are not ready for the thought. So, the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.”   - T.S. Eliot “Mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With ea...

“N ature always wears the colours of the spirit.” Probably, you have just missed the meaning of what Ralph Waldo Emerson says here. So, let’s read it, once again, slowly and together: “Nature always wears the colours of the spirit.” To understand what ‘spirit’ is – call it ‘spirituality’ – all about, I think, we do not have to open the Holy Texts or listen to the discourses of Masters… Suffice it is to sit quietly in the midst of Nature – the robust trees and the fragile grass, the busy brooks and the serene lakes, the roaring waterfalls and the glorious rainbows… the antelopes and the butterflies… the flowers, the leaves and the exploding skies… the night, the stars, the sun and the moon. Yes, suffice it is if we sit alone and see Her glory, listen to Her songs, Her whispers… without judging… just let them be… let it rain, let it snow, let it heal… let it recreate. To me, this recreation inside my bosoms, amidst the recreation of Nature, is what sp...

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”  ―  J.K. Rowling,  Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets “We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are.”  ―  J.K. Rowling,  Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix I haven’t read a single Harry Potter book… I have only watched one – the very first – Harry Potter movie. Now, even if you think, I am dumb, it’s alright; but, here is my truth: I couldn’t understand, at all, what was going on there, when I tried to read the very first book! Little kids have read all the books, I know… and, kids, young ones and adults have raved about the movies. Good for them, really. But, I have been clueless about a lot of Harry Potter stuff… Anyway, whether J.K. Rowling’s famous tales are really so great is not the issue here. The books and movies, sure...

T omorrow, early in the morning, I will be leaving for our annual, 2-day Tai Chi camp in Lonavala. This will be my third camp in a row. During the earlier two camps, I had published two of my books. First one was ‘Flowing With The Wheel’. The second one was ‘The Dragon Tail’. This year, I have no plans to publish any book… Patterns and compulsions, in life, are, always, counter-productive. They drain our energy and make us deviate from our authentic, joyful living. Yes, a couple f times, I did contemplate on working on a new book to be published during this year’s camp. But, I wasn’t feeling strong about it… The call did not seem genuine… Yes, I did not feel, that I was flowing with the wheel! So, here I am… On the eve of our Lonavala Tai Chi camp… feeling excited about the camp… but, not bad about ‘missing’ a new book… I have nothing to prove to anyone… and, nobody expects me to do that, in the first place, you see! A fter our morning walk, sitting with...

“There are some places in life where you can only go alone. Embrace the beauty of your solo journey.”  ―  Mandy Hale ,  The Single Woman: Life, Love, and a Dash of Sass M urali is my fellow-learner in the Tai Chi class. He has hearing problem. Today, as our Tai Chi teacher was guiding us through a very intense and prolonged meditative session called ‘Micro Cosmic Meditation’ (Tai Chi exercises and meditation are done in a particular standing position), I was constantly losing my concentration. My teacher noticed my restlessness and suggested to me to sit down and follow the instruction… It helped; but, mind was drifting again and again and again. Then, I stopped… and watched the reality, that my mind was drifting constantly… and, suddenly, I started feeling better… Peaceful! In the break, while talking to Murali, he said, “Today’s meditation was very effective… I am feeling better.” I told  Murali abou...