Our art of living

If I may enlighten you that in the market there are so many teachings on the art of living.  The Silva Mind Control,  Ravi Shankar's art of living, Transcental d Meditation (TM), Rama Kumari, Sai Baba ,etc and most  of these teachings are from India  It would  not be surprising as there are many great teachers who are from India and lately, the Tibetan Buddhism is also coming out in a big way with many books and article on Buddhism and from the great teachers from Tibet. Buddhism is spreading gradually in some countries and a lot of westerners are now open to Buddhism.

Well, my point is not about religion but the art of living. It is a difficult subject because it requires changes in the basic character of a person, their mentality, their thinking, their experiences, their education  and their inquisitive mind. This is a whole lot of complex equations and possible outcome. Finally, we need their patience and their discipline to see through whole exercise and have a logical evaluation of the process. Blind fate would not change a person unless it is a miracle or a dramatic experience  they have gone through.

The basic requirement is to unlearn to learn . How can we unlearn ? What we learn , we have stored it in us and there is no possibility of erasing our memory, There was this story of a businessman who encountered a big problem in his business and he do not know how to solved it. He make an appointment with his Master and the next day, he tracked up the hill and finally reach the hut of his Master.  He saw his Master making tea and he took a seat in front of him.  The Master did not say a word after the businessman explained his problem to him.  His Master took the tea pot and start pouring the tea in to his student's tea cup and he continued to pour after the cup is full until the water is flowing out from his cup. His student  told his Master that the tea is overflowing but the Master keep pouring for a little while more and stop.  He told his student to go home and think about the tea.
The businessman think for a few days and did not understand what his Master is trying to tell him.  So, what is your interpretation?

The Master is trying to tell the businessman that his mind is fill with the problem and he is going in circles finding the solution but there is no solution.  His Master is telling him to "pour " out all his solutions which is based on his past experience  and re-look at the problem with a clear mind. A lot of time, we are focusing on the problem and try to solve it with our experience. We should try to look outside the box and to be able to look outside the box, we have to have an open mind and the guts to accept the risk and manage the risk. Most of  the time, we play it safe like wanting the cake and eat it at the same time. This is not possible and incomprehensible. To unlearn, we have to know our mind and understand our mental habits  which often take charge of our mind. This is the past experience and the past education which I am talking about. Hence, we have to learn to unlearn and learn again. If we know our mind , we will not let our emotions blur our judgement. Our emotions is a recipe of our senses and expectations and if we realize and accept it , we can control it and not it disturb or confuse our mind,

To establish our art of living, we have to break new grounds and seek wisdom to change our self. If we have live for many years, bad habits are formed and mental habits have taken over our mind. We have to acknowledge it and accept it but not re-acting to it.  If we can do it, we will find our basic self and our true mind which is the basis for eternal bliss and happiness and that is the objective of our art of living.

Namaste.