Meditation – Ramana's Musings

I Am Blessed.

For sometime now, I had been searching book shops in India and online sellers, for a book “The Path of Purification: Visuddhimagga”. I had not succeeded as it has been out of print for near 12 years.

I even found an online pdf version which was duly downloaded by a friend who got it printed, spiral bound and delivered to me. I was happy till I discovered that it was too unwieldy for me to hold and read, and in a moment of inspiration, I approached my friend and Vipassana teacher HG if he could help me get a copy. Like the very resourceful man that he is, he promptly sought help from a friend of his in Sri Lanka and was able to get me a copy which was sent by post from Sri Lanka and which reached me today.

This post is not about finally getting the book that I had been wanting to study for so long but, to express my gratitude to two remarkable people.

The fist is of course HG who had earlier featured in my post on Tragic Optimism and the other, that wonderful Buddhist in Sri Lanka, IDS, who took great pains to procure the book, pack it for overseas despatch and sent to me. And most important, practicing a Buddhist tenet of Dana, gifted it to me, a total stranger.

I am indeed blessed to have such people in my life.

Breaktime – how do you relax when you get a moment?

I have been on permanent break for so long that I have even forgotten when I started. I have no earthshaking meetings to attend, appointments to keep, or targets to meet and I simply have to live one day at a time and spend my time as entertainingly as possible.

So has my friend Shackman who too retired from active business life many years ago. That is why it intrigues me that he has come up with this topic for this week’s Friday blog post.

With modern online shopping available to add to my library, life has been made easier further. I don’t have to step out of my home for anything at all.

My life revolves around my set routine about which I have written here. Since I am not involved with any activities that need me to get suited and booted, I spend all my time dressed very comfortably in our native dress and am totally relaxed. I get plenty of excitement from my social media activities, reading and crossword puzzles besides many phone calls. More than enough for me to lead a contented and peaceful life.

My daughter in love and son look after all domestic matters and that too is something that I do not have to concern myself with and worry about. All my comforts are provided for and even the odd shopping that I may want is done by one of them.

All in all, a comfortable and peaceful retired life which I think I have earned after a lot of stress filled times till eight years ago. I am extremely grateful for my present lifestyle.

Lastly, I am not dressed like that bloke in the image on top. This is my normal every day look. Very comfortable and functional for my current lifestyle.

This is my contribution to this week’s Friday 8 On 1 blog post topic. The other seven bloggers who write on the same topic every Friday are Maria. Sanjana, Padmum, Raju, Shackman , Srinivas and Conrad. This week’s topic was suggested by Shackman. Please do go over to their respective blogs to see what they have to say on the topic. Thank you.

Solitude.

My day starts every day at around 4.30 am. I spend about an hour and a half in meditation and yoga exercises. This is followed by a hot mug of tea which I have sitting in our verandah facing our garden communing with nature for about half an hour.

These two and a half hours sets the tone for the rest of the day. The peace and quiet that this time brings about in my being is like nothing that any other form of activity can.

This quiet time in solitude leads to another hour and a half of newspaper reading, breakfast and prayer time. Till about 9 am, I would not have met or talked to anyone other than our dogs and the visiting cat.

Then the day slowly starts to bring other people into my day like my son, daughter in love, gardener, maids and phone calls.

These too are just peripheral to my existence and I enjoy being on my own and follow my routine for the rest of the day, of solving crossword puzzles, reading, responding to and / or contributing to WhatsApp, Facebook and email messages besides the few phone calls.

None of these activities takes away my sense of being comfortable with myself and this feeling is now the predominant feature of my existence.

I call it a life of solitude. Not to be mistaken for loneliness. I am not lonely. There are plenty of people in my life but, if they are not there, I am not disturbed and am perfectly happy being left alone.

Coming to the illustration on top, I do not wish to be left alone by people or not to deal with people. It is simply that, I am comfortable without them or with them and enjoy both situations.

What about you?

This is my contribution to this week’s Friday 8 On 1 blog post topic. The other seven bloggers who write on the same topic every Friday are Maria. Sanjana, Padmum, Raju, Shackman , Srinivas and Conrad. This week’s topic was suggested by me. Please do go over to their respective blogs to see what they have to say on the topic. Thank you.

Tragic Optimism.

“The man I am, greets mournfully, the man I might have been.”
~ Hebbel

I contacted a Senior Teacher of Vipassana in Pune yesterday, whom I have known since the last more than two decades. He was a highly successful Medical Practitioner as was his wife but, both have quit their practices to devote their full time and energies to Vipassana. I contacted him to find out how best I can attend a camp with my health issues. Being a doctor and a teacher of Vipassana, I thought that he would be the best guide to approach as I felt that I needed a concentrated meditation camp at this stage of my life. He guided me to my full satisfaction and also assured me that he will ensure that I will be well looked after in the local Meditation Center.

It was a nice long chat catching up with each other on many subjects and I intend keeping in regular touch with him henceforth.

After the talk was over, he sent me a photograph taken during the early days of a Vipassana Meditation Center at Markal near Pune with me and two students of meditation in it. The link will take you to show you how the place is now.

This was circa 2003 when it was still in its nascent stage and accommodation and meditation hall were still in early stages of being set up. I was approached by the same teacher to be a volunteer to serve the attendees as by then I was already a caregiver to my incapacitated late wife. In this particular case, they were a group of blind students who had to be looked after, and guided around the primitive undeveloped area so that they did not come to harm and the ten days that I did this changed me for ever.

Spending eleven nights and ten days with blind people and serving them will do that to any body. One is humbled by them with their good cheer and will to survive despite their handicap and their total trust and unconditional affection for me was a high impact emotional experience for me. My caregiving duties only increased and was even doubled after my then 91 year old father came to live with us. That period till ten years later saw the most stressful times that I have ever experienced and thankfully I was able to withstand and survive those situations due, I have no doubt, to my regular meditation practice.

That experience with the blind students changed my attitude towards life and just about that time was when I first came across Viktor Frankl and his Tragic Optimism. His profound conclusion that I share with my readers below describes my current situation at the age of 77 with health issues.

“From this one may see that there is no reason to pity old people. Instead, young people should envy them. It is true that the old have no opportunities, no possibilities in the future. But they have more than that. Instead of possibilities in the future, they have realities in the past—the potentialities they have actualized, the meanings they have fulfilled, the values they have realized—and nothing and nobody can ever remove these assets from the past.”

Unplugged.

This topic was very likely to have been chosen after reading this WhatsApp forward.
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My tryst with unplugging started in the good old days of car batteries overcharging and being advised to unplug the battery from the alternator. I did not connect to the modern usage of the term as defined below.

This is a different ballgame altogether and something that needs a different approach to one’s daily life without any electronic gadgets. Can you imagine such living?

I have a lot of experience unplugging during the pre mobile phone phenomenon. I used to regularly attend ten day meditation camps where contact with the outside world was completely denied and have benefitted immensely from those retreats. I doubt very much that I will be able to attend one of them now, having settled into a different life style completely.

I know some people who live without modern electronic gadgets and who seem to be blissful in their lives. I do envy them their bliss. I can’t however dream of being without my mobile phone handset and computer with an internet connection, particularly now in the lockdown sans newspapers and crossword puzzles. It is also very comforting to see that all my contacts on the also are using them to avoid climbing walls I suppose.

Having now taken a fresh look at the phenomenon and the message right on top of this post, perhaps, after the lockdown is lifted and some semblance of sanity is returned to our lives, I should give unplugging a shot to see if I will survive such an experience. When and if I do, I shall certainly make it a point to post my experience about that in this blog.

This is my take on this week’s Friday 5 On 1 blog post topic. The other four bloggers who write on the same topic every Friday are Sanjana, Padmum, Shackman and Conrad. This week’s topic was suggested by Padmum. Please do go over to their respective blogs to see what they have to say on the topic. Thank you.

Reflections.

As I sat in my verandah earlier today with my morning mug of tea, I was in a reflective and introspective mood and I observed that in a short spell of about half an hour, I went through a range of emotions.

First it was gratitude that I had this facility where I could spend my mornings quietly watching the morning rituals that take place every day.

Then it was great admiration and respect for the man on a moped with boxes all around him who supplies freshly baked bakery products to his customers every morning. I know for a fact that he would have been up since around 4.00 a.m loading his vehicle and the boxes so that he can start his rounds at around 6.00 a.m. Then the mind went to the men in the bakery who would have been at work perhaps all night long to service many other such vendors before dawn.

Admiration and respect continued as I watched housemaids being dropped off by family members so that they could start their daily grind of at least two and mostly three homes to work at. For them to do that, they would have had to get up at some ungodly hour to get ready for the day and cook the meals for the family to be packed and kept for them to carry to their places of study or work.

Next it was envy seeing young people jogging and older people walking briskly. Something that I wish I could indulge in but cannot due to my health issues.

Then came respect for an obviously handicapped person with some problem in one leg who walks every morning with the help of a walker.

That was followed by great annoyance at a couple of skinheads on a motor cycle with its silencer removed who zoomed across causing a great racket. As if not to be left unnoticed, that was closely followed by a car trying to overtake the motor cycle blaring its horn. Both oblivious to the fact that it was early morning and people may still be sleeping.

And finally appreciation for the punctuality of my newspaper boy who, like clockwork, drops my daily dose of them exactly at 6.20 am. With that last emotion, I came into the house to take possession of the papers and to start reading them.

Sometimes, the mornings can go into other reveries too about which I shall write another post when that happens next.