sabato 8 ottobre 2011

About doing nothing

One of the big differences between life in the modern West and India (not urbanized) in this: in India you can stand without doing anything.
Let me explain. If here in Italy or in another Western country you see a person sitting doing nothing, not talking, not reading, not working, not listining the music, not watching TV ... not plaing at pc, you are amazed, surprised. You ask "what are you doing?", in short, you think that person for an idle, for a weird or even crazy. Because here you have to do something, we must act, our senses must perceive visions / sounds / colors etc.. It is unthinkable that a person is standing doing nothing, just thinking, or even (if successful), not even thinking.
In India it is different. Or, at least, it is different in true India and not in that substitute for the West is becoming the 'shining India', the India of the economic boom.
In India you can be doing nothing, it's normal, it may be advisable, to have moments in the day in which nothing is done, you stop, close all openings to the outside.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, a master of Vedanta, in one of his enlightening conversations collected in the book "I am that" about that is saying: "This seemingly pointless to spend time in India was held in high regard. It means that in that time you are free from the obsession with 'after'. If not in a hurry, the mind becomes quiet and free from anxiety and silence begin to feel something that is usually too thin and rarefied to be perceived. The mind, to recognize it, must be open and quiet. Here we try to put the mind in perfect condition in order to understand the reality. " And the reality is not the real world (including our bodies) that we perceive with our senses and that fills us, but that is transient and therefore not real. The reality, according to Hindu thought, is not outside us but within us.
Nisargadatta still reminds us that "all our problems stem from the wrong belief to be our body: food, clothing, shelter, safety, survival. None of this makes more sense when you realize that you may not be just a body. " He who believes to be the body appears at birth and disappears with death. However, if one is freed from this erroneous belief and he is free from "I' and 'mine ', he get closer to the only thing worth knowing is the Self.
In short, "the silence and immobility are not idle, the flower fills the air with its fragrance, the candle with its light . They do nothing but change everything with their mere presence."

2 commenti:

  1. I think I'll take you up on that! So don't be surprised if, next time you pass by my office door, I'm just sitting there doing absolutely nothing!!! :-) Douglas

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  2. Don’t play games with me!!!

    Domenico

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