by Christopher Greenwood
Day 113 Lesson – Life is happening every moment
Good morning, everybody. I hope that you’re doing well.
Yesterday I spoke on the subject of contentment and the goal of trying to find it in the moment to moment experience. For me personally, it’s an ongoing practice because I find my mind keeps shifting the goalposts, keeps dreaming up new ideas, new goals of what contentment would be. I’m sure there’s something inside me, some desires coming out. Although I can’t stop this, there is some awareness where I can at least observe and see what’s happening.
I remember a story from a satsang with Mohanji, which illustrates well the destabilizing effect that the mind can have on our contentment and the shifting goals that it creates. Rarely we are happy with what we have; there’s always something more to be gained somewhere else: ‘If I have this, I’ll be happy. If I’m there, I’ll be happier.’ I thought this was a good story, and I’ll read it as it was told.
There was a master who was addressing a group of people. There were many people in the group who were married, and there were also a lot of people who would like to get married. So, he segregated them; he put a line in the middle. On one side, he put all the married people, and on the other side, all the unmarried people. Then he said, if you’re happy with your marriage, if you’re really contented, stay where you are; otherwise, crossover. All the unmarried people crossed over to the other side, and all the people who wanted to get out of marriage crossed over to the other side. So basically, all the unmarried people wanted to get married, and all the married people wished otherwise.
Mohanji shared this in the satsang and said that this is the human mind. It’s exactly how our mind works. Thinking about what he spoke about, I understood that we rarely appreciate what we have. Therefore, before we can really bring what we want in life, we must appreciate what’s already there. Usually, we don’t have any value for what we have; we don’t cherish it. And somehow, we want to get out of it.
Our goals are always changing. What happens when they change? That becomes very destabilizing. Certain issues can come into life, like confusions: ‘I don’t know what to do, is this the right thing I’m doing? Is there something better I can be doing?’ All these questions can come because goals are changing.
There’ve been some cases where I’ve experienced that during my time here. Not too extreme situations but being able to observe that you can become very settled with what you have, and then you begin to lose value for it.
Mohanji also shared another story. There was one man, and his friend had told him, “My father would like to see you” because they’d been classmates for some time. His father wasn’t well, and he wanted to see him. So, he invited him to his home; he brought the friend back to his house. And he went and saw the father. The father was paralyzed; he was bedridden, had a stroke, and couldn’t move anymore. Probably bedridden for six months or so. They both sat next to each other; he held his hand and spoke about the past. The friend asked, “Is this something that I could do for you? Do you have any desire? Do you have any wish?” The father just said, “Before I die, I would just like to walk from this bed to the gate of the house, to the front of the house and come back.” That was his goal. That was all he wanted to do. His aim was just to get out of bed, walk, and come back.
This story resonated with me because it reinforced a lesson that I’d seen with my grandfather. He contracted cancer, and in the last days of his life, he was in a hospice where they took care of him and all his needs. He’d become very weak, so the nurse had to bathe him; he needed to be lifted out of bed and put in a special room where they could wash him. And that was his call, too; he said that all he wanted to do was just be able to get from the bed by himself, get into the bathroom by himself and wash. That was his complete focus, which he never achieved. But that’s what his aim had come to.
This story Mohanji shared is a good reminder that only when we reach a certain position in life, do we realize that our aims are not that complicated. But for that man to walk from the bed to the front of the house was impossible. Someone had to carry him.
Mohanji said in that talk that we must understand that this is life. It’s happening every moment. And when it’s happening, we don’t value it. We’re talking, we’re listening, all our senses are working, and we don’t value most of it. Sometimes we don’t even value relationships; we don’t value what we have in them, what’s being given to us, what we have in abundance. If we believe that we can have something else, and it will be better, it is probably not the case. Life won’t work that way. We can cherish every bit of what we have, and that’s where to start.
These are the notes I found yesterday after looking more at contentment. Although I’d read this and understood it before, it was a good reminder to look at this again especially when putting that in relation to experiencing moment to moment contentment, cherishing every bit of what we have.
I hope you have a good day and I will speak to you soon.
Day 114 Lesson – Sharing what we do & the new family members
Good morning, everybody. I hope that you’re doing well.
I hadn’t spoken for some time about what’s happening around the house, so I’ll share with you some additions we’ve had to the family of beings who regularly come to the house for food and just to be here. We have crows, other birds, squirrels, and small beings like ants, but about a month back, a mother cat arrived with three kittens.
She was coming before for some time; she was very scared, fearful, and clearly pregnant. But she was very nervous. She would be meowing for food, and we would put some food out. But then she’d stay at a big distance, even across the other side of the road, until we’d move. Then she’d come and eat the food. You couldn’t even touch her. And then she disappeared for some time.
But now she has come back, and she’s lounging on the grass in the sun with the kids. They’ve become so comfortable the other day that they even decided to walk into the house. I had to chase them out the back door of the kitchen. Now each morning they’re there, they play fighting, playing in the bushes, making noise for food, much to the annoyance of the birds. Especially the squirrels, they get really angry with all the cats there now.
There used to just be just one, which came from time to time. But now there are four, jumping around the garden. I think they must feel the energy of the house and like settling here. There’s big healing energy. Also, the tulsi brushes have grown a lot, giving a nice freshness to the place.
Besides the new additions to the family at the house, I wanted to share a lesson that I’d picked up from Mohanji about how to speak about the Mohanji platforms and all the activities. This is related to sharing what we’re doing with people; this is a place where people can come, share their gifts, give back, and feel a sense of fulfillment from serving. And there are many opportunities for people in many ways to do that.
What I liked about Mohanji, observing him, is that he is very matter-of-fact when he speaks about the platforms. He said before that the way of the tradition is never to promote or canvass; we simply have to announce, and then those who will come will come. From his calls and his meetings, I’ve observed that he’ll share at the right time, in the right conversation, what we’re doing with organizations like Ammucare, Act4Hunger, and World Consciousness Alliance, depending on who he’s communicating with.
He simply explains the vision of what we’re looking to achieve, what we’ve done, and what we’re trying to do next. Maybe he’ll mention some of the challenges that we have. More often than not, I see that people’s interest is sparked. Even if they don’t want to volunteer, they are interested to know that something good and positive is happening in the world. Then, another person knows the great things that we’re doing. And who knows, they may pass that on to somebody else, too.
This was a learning because I wouldn’t say I was hesitant, but it was never really at the forefront of my mind to just share what I was doing. I’m so involved in the activity and understand people are as involved in theirs. There was never understanding on my part that people would be interested to hear these types of things. Thus, following Mohanji’s lead, I took a cue to start speaking more about the platforms, especially with my friends, family, and my old business networks. Many are busy with their own activities, but I’m finding that people are becoming really inspired by what we’re doing in the world. And many are saying that, when they have some free time, they’d love to contribute something.
It’s been a learning for me that people are looking for a place to do something for the world. Many people are. And personally, in the teams that I’m part of, we have a lot to do. Thus, I’m always looking for how we can either bring people in or outsource. By speaking to people about it, I find that connections are opening quickly and easily. I’m sure this is the grace of Mohanji coming through.
For example, recently, I was looking for someone to help with slides and graphics. I just shared this with somebody in a conversation. Then they said, “I know somebody who does this, and they’re really good. I’ll put you in touch.” So, this person arranged the contact with the other person, and yesterday, they sent back a proposal. All this happened quickly. Growing connections could potentially, in the future, turn into more volunteers, too.
This lesson is significant for me now because I need to build strong teams, especially for the Mohanji office. As activities increase, we will need more people here who can help represent that. If anyone is interested in knowing more about speaking about the platforms, maybe they’re interested in doing so too; I’m happy to share. So do message me.
Have a great day ahead.
|| JAI BRAHMARISHI MOHANJI ||
Edited & Published by – Testimonials Team, 27th March 2022
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