Experience Fullness by Emptying Yourself by SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The world would be free of trouble if there were no love. Without love, you can’t be jealous. Greed comes because you love objects too much. Anger is because you love perfection; imperfections anger you. You love yourself too much and that’s why you are proud and arrogant.

It is not love per se but the distortion of love that causes problems, yet life will have no meaning without love. Suppose you are immensely successful and have all the riches at your command but love is missing from your life. Life will not really be worthwhile; it would appear dry and barren. All we really long for in life is love; a divine love. The purpose in life is to blossom in that ideal love.

So how do you get to that point of love where it is free from distortions and you are at ease with yourself? Love with knowledge, understanding that it is your ego that’s obstructing you from innocent love. Ego is like a dream. You can’t call a dream real neither can you call it unreal because you have had the experience.

To be egoistic is to be unnatural. The ego is not a substance; it is a non-substance like darkness. Darkness is only lack of light or absence of light. You could say ego is just absence of maturity or the lack of pure knowledge. Knowledge is an aid to develop your innermost state, which is love. Love is a state of being rather than an act. We are all made up of love. When the mind is in the present moment, we are in a state of love. So live in the present moment.

If everything is God and all is love, then where is life heading to? Life is heading towards perfection. You look for perfection; that is why you are angry at imperfections. There are three kinds of perfection: perfection in action or Kriya, in speech or Vachan, and in feelings or ‘Baav’.

Suppose someone makes a mistake and when you see that you get angry. Then you are no better than the person who has made the mistake. Your feelings have become imperfect because of someone’s imperfection in action. Any action will have some flaw. But when the feeling becomes imperfect, then it stays for a longer period. Inner perfection is lost.

Spiritual practices help you maintain your centeredness and remain unshaken by small events. Every individual is bestowed with all the virtues. They simply get covered by lack of understanding and stress. Just uncover the virtues that are already there. Breathing techniques and meditation are effective in calming the mind. Learning something about our breath is important. Our breath has a great lesson to teach us, which we have forgotten.

Handling the mind directly is difficult. For every emotion in the mind, there is a corresponding rhythm in the breath and for every rhythm in the breath there is a corresponding emotion. Knowing this and learning various breathing techniques will allow you to deal with mind and emotions effectively.

Our mind is like a pot that is turned upside down. When we were born, the pot came first with the neck upright. The whole purpose of life is to stand up, turn the pot upside down and empty it. But the pot is filled with something very sticky; though it is standing upside down, it doesn’t get empty. Becoming hollow or empty is the whole purpose of life.

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