Zen and the art of filtering junk!

Cheeniya · Jun 9, 2007

Dear Sudha
I can read your mind from your responses in various forums. I sometimes wish I had a mind as fertile as yours. I have commented more on this aspect in my post congratulating you on becoming a Gold ILite
Btw, I dont feel like posting a new thread until you have read my current one and commented on it!
Sri

Cheeniya · Jun 9, 2007

Dear Malathy
I have heard that great men think alike and often wondered why it should be restricted to men only. You have now proved that great women think alike too!
And thanks for your comments. You are an emerging giant of IL and you already have a circle of admirers that includes me. A FB from you always gladdens my heart!
Sri

Sriniketan · Jun 10, 2007

Sir,
As I read through the story and its comparison by you to a computer and the advice to filter the junk -- its marvellous!
I think that this message is also applicable to the stomach. think of all the junk we eat. One day the stomach will be tired of doing its work and its anger towards us eating such food, gives us sickness in any form. It is better we filter the junk food in our menu, too.
In the same way, if the mind is full of junk things it is going to show its anger in any form, you guess the words in the psychiatrists' dictionary.
To avoid all these troubles, we must practice our mind to clear of all the junk, everyday otherwise it is we who are going to invite trouble to ourselves and also to others around us.
By the way, who wants to smell bad with the garbage inside us? Even the scents are of no use.

Sriniketan

chitrajan · Jun 10, 2007

Dear Sr. Sri,

I agree with you that forgetfulness is a great boon to mankind for most of us forget the bad memories.

Everyone or should I say most of us do undergo some bitter moments in our lives and feel the hurt. To let go of the anger and hurt is also part of the filtering process or else it stays in our minds and lives and junk. Though time is the greatest healer, we have to train our minds to move forward in life and not brood over it.

I should say that this blessing has helped me to move forward in life in spite of some encounters.

Cheeniya · Jun 10, 2007

Dear Sriniketan
That is a great extension of the Zen story to our physical well being too! We all know that a healthy mind keeps our physical fitness in great shape and vice versa. So if only we can remove the junk from our minds as well as our bodies, we would be unbeatable!
Again your reference to the garbage inside making us stink is classy! No wonder the perfume manufacturers the world over are having a roaring business!
Sri

Cheeniya · Jun 10, 2007

Dear Chitra
It is true that Time is a great healer but the problem is Time takes its own time! If we can only quicken the process of healing through some yogic exercises, we can attain Inner Peace earlier than just leaving it to Time to complete the healing process.
I think its worth speeding up for we do not know at what stage of our Time Spectrum we are presently placed!
Sri

shreyasri · Jun 12, 2007

sir,

i can't forget Mr.David Jayakumar,our yoga teacher thru middle&high school,who told us this story. i enjoyed reading it again in your words-thanks for the effort of penning it for our benefit.

i often marvel at the sky: numerous clouds,storms passing across it; but none of it ever leaving an indelible mark on the canvass. the explanation is simple-it is ether, a mere nothing. but, so is the mind, a mere nothing. if it was a physical matter, it wouldn't elude anatomy. the sky is there reminding us every minute that storms could easily desert the mind(like the birds steering across a clear sky).

to me, the soul seems to be dormant. man is not conferred the power to manipulate the soul. here, the mind acts as a buffer. a turbulent mind could tarnish the soul. as i wrote before,being too introspective fills the bin withtrash.

Oh, how easy to say, but practically impossible, utopian.

memory is substantially related to willingness(to remember). as you said,[FONT=&quot]"... we may remember what we ate yesterday or the day before but not a month before! These and many other things are automatically deleted or otherwise our heads.... " [/FONT][FONT=&quot]in some cases,[/FONT][FONT=&quot]we continue to remember what we particularly liked or hated.
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]one may be able to recall the taste of a 'special tea' he had at a roadside dhaba years back. one may also remember how his mother carried him to school 60 winters back!

regards.:wave
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Cheeniya · Jun 12, 2007

Dear Shreyasri
i often marvel at the sky: numerous clouds,storms passing across it; but none of it ever leaving an indelible mark on the canvass. the explanation is simple-it is ether, a mere nothing. but, so is the mind, a mere nothing. if it was a physical matter, it wouldn't elude anatomy. the sky is there reminding us every minute that storms could easily desert the mind(like the birds steering across a clear sky).

That statement of yours is more eminently quotable than the quotes we read in Reader's Digest! How profound is that statement! I have witnessed cloud covers of over a thousand sq.kilometers which obscure the sky for days on but once the storm crosses the coast, the azure sky makes us wonder if there was a cloud cover obscutring it at all. Nothing gets superimposed on that 'nothingness' as you call it.
Your comparison of the sky to our minds is very apt with this difference that if anything needs to be superimposed on it, we have the capacity to do it. What we superimpose and what we retain make our personality.

Honestly I am sure that you introspect a lot judged from the kind of replies you give but your introspections being very positive are bound to make you an elevated soul eventually
Sri

parusabari · Apr 2, 2010

Dear Sir,

A lovely post...........it made me think a lot. True as you have stated....

"We take care to clean up our Mailbox and our computers almost on a daily basis by removing all the unwanted stuff from them so that their performance is optimized. But we prefer to keep our minds full of stuff that ought to have been thrown out ages back!"

I had read long ago write the good deeds done by people for you on rock and write the bad deeds done by people against you (if any) on sand. Yes I would like to keep the slate - My mind clean and pure.
I loved this post a lot and hope to impart this lesson to my children also soon.
Forget and forgive- is better understood now.

Thank you very much for this lovely post.

Parvathi.

Cheeniya · Apr 3, 2010

Dear Parvathi
Thank you very much for your lovely FB.

I am happy to hear that you intend feeding your children with stories like these which impart great lessons of life in such a simple tone. This is what I can as 'Spending quality time with growing children' Children usually learn their lessons from their parents until they reach their teen age and thereafter they slowly go out of the ambit of parental influence. It is therefore essential that we make the best use of this period to lay the foundation for a life of virtues and values.

Sri