Scientific Living » Death

Remember Death

Scientific Living — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:39:14 +0000

People who are actively seeking to develop their personality, to broaden themselves all around, to be happy, and to be successful in life, should always remember death. If a person always remembers the inevitability of death, then that person will be sure to guide their lives in a proper direction.

Everyone who seriously wants to be successful thinks a great deal about the direction their life is taking, and what it will bring in their future. We invest money in various things. We look for new financial opportunities. We prepare ourselves for hard times. We try to become more efficient in living our day to day lives. We think about how we will be able to buy a home. We think about insuring all our belongings. We think about maintaining our health.

These are all great. These will all lead to growth and personal development. When we think constantly about where we are now, and where we want to be, we effectively steer our lives in the right direction, and we achieve our goals. That’s all fine and dandy if all you want is a little personal growth. If all you are looking for is a little money, and just a little fragile happiness, then there is no need for more. However, if you want more than just a little financial security or a little happiness, then something more is needed.

Many people work hard. They go to college. They work diligently through a long career. They are constantly anxious to pay off their bills or their debts. They worry about their children or their marriage. They struggle to overcome all their problems. And they eventually do succeed.

But there’s a catch.

Once these people finish working through problems ABC, they are presented with a new set of worries, XYZ. In this way, they spend their entire lives full of anxiety. The unfortunate part is that most of these anxieties are self-imposed.

An Experiment

Here’s an experiment. Ask a bunch of young people these questions:

1. What are your biggest worries?
2. Have your parents also faced these worries? And have they conquered them?
3. Are your parents happy?

Young people are often worried about what they will do after school finishes, and how they will get financial security in life. A large number of these people will also say that their parents are no longer worried about financial security. Then, almost no one will say that their parents are happy.

Hopefully this should tease your brain. Seriously though, if your survey results also look like mine, then doesn’t that say we have a systematic flaw in the way we are living? Shouldn’t there be opportunity for everyone who diligently directs their lives to gain happiness? There is such an opportunity. And we can achieve that happiness, if we keep perspective.

Security in Life

In one word, “security” is what we are seeking in life. We want to be free of all worries, and thereby feel secure. But life will never ever be free of worries. We think after we do this thing or that thing, that we will feel secure. It hardly ever happens. And if it does, it is only for a short while.

All Worries and Anxieties Are Fear of Death in Disguise

Say for example a person is worried about becoming broke. Such thoughts arise as:

“What will happen to me?”
“What will become of me?”
“How will I live?”

The common thread here is me, me, me! When we value ourselves based on something like our finances, our sense of identity (i.e. our sense of “I”) gets tangled up with the problem at hand. If I am rich, then suddenly I become poor, then my sense of identity has changed. In other words, to a certain degree, I have died.

What is death? It is exactly defined as the destruction of our sense of identity.

What we really are, for the time being, most of us are not aware. All we have is a sense or a belief of what we are. We identify with situations and circumstances of life. We say this person is tall, short, fat, slim, rich, poor, black, white, nice, mean, etc. These are NOT what a person actually is. These are only attributes that we use to describe. When these attributes change, we fool ourselves into thinking that we ourselves have actually changed (i.e. died).

In this way, all our anxieties are around changing the attributes that make up our apparent sense of identity. We want to control these attributes, because we are afraid of our sense of identity changing. In short, we are afraid of death.

A Person’s Life is a Preparation for Death

If we worry when it comes to things like losing money, or losing a relationship, then how much more will we worry when it comes time to die!

On the other hand, if we first worry a certain amount when it comes to becoming old and dying, then the mental strength and faith that we slowly gain in ourselves and in our potential will make other challenges far less significant to us.

This is why the greatest challenge in personality development is to achieve the goal of fearlessness. If we can do that, everything else is automatically achieved.

We will have clarity of thought to make better decisions in life, when we are sobered by the remembrance of death. We will stop creating new worries when we know various attributes are not what we really are. We will have more focus. We will see everyone more kindly and compassionately when we realize that we are all subject to the same fate of dying. We will be humbled also.

Lastly, if we can be perfectly successful in conquering the fear of death, we will achieve not just partial, but complete sense of security in life. When we know, through and through, that only various attributes leave us at death, how could anything worry us?

Don’t you think?

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33 Quotations of Vivekananda

Scientific Living — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 05:54:15 +0000

Credited with first introducing Eastern religion to the West at large, Swami Vivekananda is one of the most well known saints and spiritual teachers in recent history. He is also one of the most quotable:

1. High Thinking

“Doing is very good, but that comes from thinking. Little manifestations of energy through the muscles are called work. But where there is no thought, there will be no work. Fill the brain, therefore, with high thoughts, highest ideals, place them day and night before you, and out of that will come great work. Talk not about impurity, but say that we are pure. We have hypnotised ourselves into this thought that we are little, that we are born, and that we are going to die, and into a constant state of fear.”

2. Conquering Nature

“Man is born to conquer nature and not to follow it.”

3. Attachment to Results

“Let the man, who knows no better, work for selfish ends, for name and fame; but everyone should always try to get towards higher and higher motives and to understand them. “To work we have the right, but not to the fruits thereof:” Leave the fruits alone. Why care for results? If you wish to help a man, never think what that man’s attitude should be towards you. If you want to do a great or a good work, do not trouble to think what the result will be.”

4. Truth

“Truth can be stated in a thousand different ways, yet each one can be true.”

5. Removing Obstructions

“You cannot teach a child any more than you can grow a plant. All you can do is on the negative side — you can only help. It is a manifestation from within; it develops its own nature — you can only take away obstructions.”

6. Immortality

“That man has reached immortality who is disturbed by nothing material.”

7. Growth

“You have to grow from inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.”

8. Sacrifice

“Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything.”

9. Thoughts

“We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care of what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live, they travel far. Each thought we think is tinged with our own character, so that for the pure and holy man, even his jests or abuse will have the twist of his own love and purity and do good.”

10. Doing Evil

“If you want to do anything evil, do it before the eyes of your superiors.”

11. Success

“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success. That is the way great spiritual giants are produced.”

12. Self Improvement

“Things are not bettered, but we are bettered, by making changes in them.”

13. Responsibility

“We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.”

14. Manifestation

“When an idea exclusively occupies the mind, it is transformed into an actual physical or mental state.”

15. Positive Thinking

“If you think about disaster, you will get it. Brood about death and you hasten your demise. Think positively and masterfully, with confidence and faith, and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, richer in achievement and experience.”

16. Strength

“The world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong.”

17. Faith in Oneself

“If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished.”

18. Service

“Do not stand on a high pedestal and take 5 cents in your hand and say, “here, my poor man”, but be grateful that the poor man is there, so by making a gift to him you are able to help yourself. It is not the receiver that is blessed, but it is the giver. Be thankful that you are allowed to exercise your power of benevolence and mercy in the world, and thus become pure and perfect.”

19. Money

“If money help a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.”

20. Duty

“Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.”

21. Divinity

“Oh, if only you knew yourselves! You are souls; you are Gods. If ever I feel like blaspheming, it; is when I call you man.”

22. Sectarianism

“As soon as you make a sect, you protest against universal brotherhood. Those who really feel universal brotherhood do not talk much, but their very actions speak aloud.”

23. Faith in Oneself

“You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.”

24. Individual Growth

“The seed is put in the ground, and earth and air and water are placed around it. Does the seed become the earth; or the air, or the water? No. It becomes a plant, it develops after the law of its own growth, assimilates the air, the earth, and the water, converts them into plant substance, and grows into a plant. Similar is the case with religion. The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve his individuality and grow according to his own law of growth.”

25. Holiness

“Holiness, purity and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character. In the face of this evidence, if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart, and point out to him that upon the banner of every religion will soon be written, in spite of resistance: “Help and not Fight,” “Assimilation and not Destruction,” “Harmony and Peace and not Dissension.”"

26. Non-injury

“Any action that makes us go Godward is a good action, and is our duty; any action that makes us go downward is evil, and is not our duty. From the subjective standpoint we may see that certain acts have a tendency to exalt and ennoble us, while certain other acts have a tendency to degrade and to brutalise us. But it is not possible to make out with certainty which acts have which kind of tendency in relation to all persons, of all sorts and conditions. There is, however, only one idea of duty which has been universally accepted by all mankind, of all ages and sects and countries, and that has been summed up in a Sanskrit aphorism thus: “Do not injure any being; not injuring any being is virtue, injuring any being is sin.””

27. Superconsciousness

“All the different steps in Yoga are intended to bring us scientifically to the superconscious state, or Samadhi. Furthermore, this is a most vital point to understand, that inspiration is as much in every man’s nature as it was in that of the ancient prophets. These prophets were not unique; they were men as you or I. They were great Yogis. They had gained this superconsciousness, and you and I can get the same. They were not peculiar people. The very fact that one man ever reached that state, proves that it is possible for every man to do so. Not only is it possible, but every man must, eventually, get to that state, and that is religion.”

28. Madness

“My Master used to say, “This world is a huge lunatic asylum where all men are mad, some after money, some after women, some after name or fame, and a few after God. I prefer to be mad after God. God is the philosophers’ stone that turns us to gold in an instant; the form remains, but the nature is changed — the human form remains, but no more can we hurt or sin.”"

29. Sin

“Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin- to say that you are weak, or others are weak.”

30. Love of Humanity

“You know, I may have to be born again, you see, I have fallen in love with mankind.”

31. God’s Mercy

“Is there no hope? Is there no escape? — was the cry that went up from the bottom of the heart of despair. It reached the throne of mercy, and words of hope and consolation came down and inspired a Vedic sage, and he stood up before the world and in trumpet voice proclaimed the glad tidings: “Hear, ye children of immortal bliss! even ye that reside in higher spheres! I have found the Ancient One who is beyond all darkness, all delusion: knowing Him alone you shall be saved from death over again.”"

32. The War of Life

“That you may catch my fire, that you may be intensely sincere, that you may die the heroes’ death on the field of battle — is the constant prayer of -VIVEKANANDA”

33. Ceaseless Work

“It may be that I shall find it good to get outside of my body — to cast it off like a disused garment. But I shall not cease to work! I shall inspire men everywhere, until the world shall know that it is one with God.”

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17 Things Life Is Not

Scientific Living — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 01:27:45 +0000

Most people never truly consider what life really is. Then again, some people can never be satisfied until they comb the depths and uncover life’s secret. It is far better to be like the later.

1. Life is not a competition – Of the 6 billion people on the planet, which one is the winner? Do the other 5.999 billion get thrown in the trash?

2. The purpose of life is not enjoyment – Those that say we are all meant to prosper on earth have never felt real hunger.

3. This life is not eternal – Most people live as if they are making arrangements to remain here permanently. Better to be ready to die than to be ready to live here forever.

4. This life is not all there is – Remember when you were five? The body you had then is now dead, yet your consciousness is not. Death is just like that.

5. Life is not static – All matter and energy are in constant flux. Not a single atom is ever still. Everything is constantly flowing into one another.

6. Life is not in need of your help – Not a single leaf falls to the ground without the consent of the Supreme Poet. It permits everything – even suffering. If you help another, it is only at the bidding of That.

7. Life is not well-defined – Try and define it.

8. Life is neither perfect nor imperfect – If life were free of suffering, who would care to look beyond? Yet at the same time, this seemingly imperfect universe has sprung forth from the Perfect One, who is in no part imperfect.

9. Life is not partial – All reap what they sow.

10. Life is not like a box of chocolates – We get what we want. We wish for the power of a genie and unwittingly get trapped in a lamp.

11. Life is not meant to be easy – Muscles never grow until you tie them to weights.

12. Life is not insentient – No scientist has ever explained the marvelous order that exists in the cosmos. They have only renamed, redefined, or reduced the question to an equivalent one.

13. Life does not depend on money – Money is an invention of man. If we were truly dependent on it, then we would be slaves of our own invention. Man’s greatest possession is his good character.

14. Life is not to be clinged to - Anything material that you grab on to will slip through your fingers. Nothing in this universe can be made to stand still.

15. Life is not to be shunned - If you run away from the problems of life, you are only clinging on to something else.

16. Life is not as serious as we think – A child cries over nothing as if it were everything, yet we see how inconsequential it really is. We are also like that. We will also grow up. Children become men, and men become divine.

17. Life is not insurmountable – That man has reached immortality who is disturbed by nothing material. Be like that. It is worth 1,000 years of struggle.

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10 Spiritual Stories of Sri Ramakrishna

Scientific Living — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 02:40:44 +0000

Great spiritual teachers are invariably great story tellers. Sri Ramakrishna was no exception.

First, you can read 5 spiritual stories on AnmolMehta.Com. Anmol is a well known meditation teacher, and has one of the largest websites on yoga and meditation on the internet. Today, I have guest posted these stories on his site.

Then you can enjoy 5 more spiritual stories of Sri Ramakrishna told here:

The Elephant God and the Mahut God

“Let me tell you a story. In a forest there lived a holy man who had many disciples. One day he taught them to see God in all beings and, knowing this, to bow low before them all. A disciple went to the forest to gather wood for the sacrificial fire. Suddenly he heard an outcry: ‘Get out of the way! A mad elephant is coming!’

All but the disciple of the holy man took to their heels. He reasoned that the elephant was also God in another form. Then why should he run away from it? He stood still, bowed before the animal, and began to sing its praises. The mahut of the elephant was shouting: ‘Run away! Run away!’ But the disciple didn’t move.

The animal seized him with its trunk, cast him to one side, and went on its way. Hurt and bruised, the disciple lay unconscious on the ground. Hearing what had happened, his teacher and his brother disciples came to him and carried him to the hermitage.

With the help of some medicine he soon regained consciousness. Someone asked him, ‘You knew the elephant was coming – why didn’t you leave the place?’ ‘But’, he said, ‘our teacher has told us that God Himself has taken all these forms, of animals as well as men. Therefore, thinking it was only the elephant God that was coming, I didn’t run away.’

At this the teacher said: ‘Yes, my child, it is true that the elephant God was coming; but the mahut God forbade you to stay there. Since all are manifestations of God, why didn’t you trust the mahut’s words? You should have heeded the words of the mahut God.’ (Laughter)

“It is said in the scriptures that water is a form of God. But some water is fit to be used for worship, some water for washing the face, and some only for washing plates or dirty linen. This last sort cannot be used for drinking or for a holy purpose.

In like manner, God undoubtedly dwells in the hearts of all – holy and unholy, righteous and unrighteous; but a man should not have dealings with the unholy, the wicked, the impure. He must not be intimate with them. With some of them he may exchange words, but with others he shouldn’t go even that far. He should keep aloof from such people.”

Occult Powers

“It is very troublesome to possess occult powers. Nangta taught me this by a story. A man who had acquired occult powers was sitting on the seashore when a storm arose. It caused him great discomfort; so he said, ‘Let the storm stop.’ His words could not remain unfulfilled. At that moment a ship was going full sail before the wind. When the storm ceased abruptly the ship capsized and sank. The passengers perished and the sin of causing their death fell to the man. And because of that sin he lost his occult powers and went to hell.”

The Absorbed Fisherman

This story illustrates how one should become completely absorbed in meditation.

“A man was sitting on the bank of a stream, all alone, fishing. It was getting late and still he had caught no fish. After a while the float on his line began to move. Now and then its tip touched the water. The fisherman was holding the line tight in his hands, ready to pull it up, when somebody came walking by, on the road above the banks of the stream. “Sir,” the traveller said to the fisherman, “can you tell me where the Lettermans live? It’s somewhere around here…”

There was no reply from the fisherman, because he was just on the verge of pulling up his rod. There seemed to be business at the end of the line. Again and again the traveller said, in a louder voice, “Sir, can you tell me where the Lettermans live?” But the man fishing in the stream was unconscious of everything around him. His hands were trembling, his eyes fixed on the float, the picture of a fine fish about to come up, vivid in his mind. “This man must be stone deaf,” said the traveller to himself, very much annoyed, and so he started walking on the road again.

After he had gone quite a way, it happened that the fisherman’s float sank under the water and with one pull of the rod he landed a good sized fish. Wiping the sweat from, his brow (it was a hot day) he now turned and shouted after the visitor. “Hey!” he said. “Come here! Listen! But the man would not even turn his face. After much shouting, however, he did come back. He said to the fisherman, “Why are you shouting at me?”

“What did you ask me about?” said the fisherman.

“Why, I repeated my question so many times and here you are, asking me to repeat it again!” The fisherman replied: “At that time a fish was after my bait, so I didn’t hear a word of what you said.”"

The Weaver and the Robbers

“In a certain village there lived a weaver. He was a very pious,soul. Everyone trusted him and loved him. He used to sell his goods in the market-place. When a customer asked him the price of a piece of cloth, the weaver would say: ‘By the will of Rāma the price of the yarn is one rupee and the labour four ānnās ; by the will of Rāma the profit is two ānnās . The price of the cloth, by the will of Rāma, is one rupee and six ānnās .’ Such was the people’s faith in the weaver that the customer would at once pay the price and take the cloth. The weaver was a real devotee of God. After finishing his supper in the evening, he would spend long hours’ in the worship hall meditating on God and chanting His name and glories. Now, late one night the weaver couldn’t get to sleep. He was sitting in the worship hall, smoking now and then, when a band of robbers happened to pass that way. They wanted a man to carry their goods and said to the weaver, ‘Come with us.’ So saying, they led him off by the hand. After committing a robbery in a house, they put a load of things on the weaver’s head, commanding him to carry them. Suddenly the police arrived and the robbers ran away. But the weaver, with his load, was arrested. He was kept in the lock-up for the night. Next day he was brought before the magistrate for trial. The villagers learnt what had happened and came to court. They said to the magistrate, ‘Your Honour, this man could never commit a robbery.’ Thereupon the magistrate asked the weaver to make his statement.

‘The weaver said: ‘Your Honour, by the will of Rāma I finished my meal at night. Then by the will of Rāma I was sitting in the worship hall. It was quite late at night by the will of Rāma. By the will of Rāma I had been thinking of God and chanting His name and glories, when by the will of Rāma a band of robbers passed that way. By the will of Rāma they dragged me with them; by the will of Rāma they committed a robbery in a house; and by the will of Rāma they put a load on my head. Just then, by the will of Rāma the police arrived, and by the will of Rāma I was arrested. Then by the will of Rāma the police kept me in the lock-up for the night, and this morning by the will of Rāma I have been brought before Your Honour.’ The magistrate realized that the weaver was a pious man and ordered his release. On his way home the weaver said to his friends, ‘By the will of Rāma I have been released.’

“Whether a man should be a householder or a monk depends on the will of Rāma. Surrender everything to God and do your duties in the world.”

Intense Renunciation

“A certain woman said to her husband: ‘So-and-so has developed a spirit of great dispassion for the world, but I don’t see anything of the sort in you. He has sixteen wives. He is giving them up one by one.’ The husband, with a towel on his shoulder, was going to the lake for his bath. He said to his wife, ‘You are crazy! He won’t be able to give up the world. Is it ever possible to renounce bit by bit? I can renounce. Look! Here I go.’ He didn’t stop even to settle his household affairs. He left home just as he was, the towel on his shoulder, and went away. That is intense renunciation. No sooner did the man discriminate than he renounced.”

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