by Om Swami
Gone, gone, gone beyond, way beyond…
There is no return…
The Perfection of Wisdom
Prajna Paramita Sutra – IV
tasmāc chāriputra aprāptitvād bodhisattvasya prajñāpāramitām āśritya viharatyacittāvaraa. cittāvaraa-nāstitvād atrastro viparyāsa-atikrānto nihā-nirvāa-prāpta.
tryadhva-vyavasthitā sarva-buddhā prajñāpāramitām āśrityā-anuttarā samyaksambodhim abhisambuddhā.
tasmāj jñātavyam: prajñāpāramitā mahā-mantro mahā-vidyā mantro ‘nuttara-mantro samasama-mantra, sarva dukha praśamana, satyam amithyatāt. prajñāpāramitāyām ukto mantra.
tadyathā: gate gate pāragate pārasagate bodhi svāhā.
Therefore, Shariputra, without attainment Bodhisattvas take refuge in prajna paramita and live without the walls of the mind. Without walls of the mind thus without fears. They see through delusions and finally come to Nirvana.
All Buddhas from three ages (past, present and future) take refuge in prajna paramita and realize unexcelled perfect enlightenment.
Therefore, you should know the Great Mantra of prajna paramita. The mantra of great wisdom. The unexcelled mantra. The mantra equal to the unequal. Which heals all suffering, it is all true and not false.
The mantra of prajna paramita does spoken: Om Gate gateparagateparasamgate Bodhi Svaha.
Though in the translation above, I have used the phrase ‘without the walls of the mind,’ but the actual term Buddha used was avarana and it means covering. What I have used refers to opening ourselves up to new possibilities, letting go off the conditioning, to drop ill-formed views and so on. Avarana, as covers, however, is a closer interpretation of what Buddha meant.
Our minds are filled with concepts and ideas, most of which have been passed onto us without any spiritual basis. Our moral code is thousands of years old, quite incompatible with today’s time, and just as impractical as it’s always been. It has only succeeded in giving people a sense of guilt, granting more power to the religious authorities by telling people they were not good. Buddha, however, asks Shariputra to take refuge in the supreme wisdom, to go beyond the duality of right – wrong, etc. Only under such conditions will the mind experience complete fearlessness.
Other than the right conduct, right speech and right livelihood, Buddha gave great importance to the ‘right view’ of the world. He had seen numerous people suffer on account of their negative emotions, desires and so on. He felt it was completely unnecessary.
Realizing that even all knowledge acquired either empirically or otherwise has no meaning in the end. It’s all empty, he said. This was the perfection of wisdom according to him. And he imparted Shariputra a mantra. The Sanskrit word ‘mantra’ means that which protects the mind.
Gate gate paragate, parasam gate bodhi svaha.
‘When you reach that state,’ Buddha says, ‘there is no return.’
This wisdom of Buddha was not too different from what Krishna had imparted 2000 years before Buddha. Yad gatva na nivartante18, Krishna had said. That there is no return. He called his abode of supreme bliss where even the light of the sun wouldn’t reach but a liberated soul reaches so far beyond. The only downside of liberation is that across all ages, the prophets, messiahs, enlightened sages were mostly misunderstood and some of them had to suffer dire consequences. They faced everything with grace but the workings of an enlightened mind rarely make sense to the one who has got a set view of the world. But every few thousand years, someone like Krishna, Christ or Buddha comes and shakes up the society.
This was the Heart Sutra: Prajna paramita Hridaya Sutra.
Experience Zen in its entirety, and reflect on this: Life is empty. Everything I love is empty; everything I hate is empty. All forms that I want to cling to are empty. All emptiness that I cling to has beautiful forms.
This constant play of nature – one season comes, then goes, another one comes, then goes – is what life is all about. It’s not about some grand goal. Zen does not believe in that. Zen says, nirvana or moksha is simply a matter of perspective. If you can eat when you are eating, if you can sleep when you are sleeping, you are jivan-mukta, a liberated soul. You are enlightened.
That’s what most people struggle with: when they want to eat, they can’t; when they want to sleep, they can’t. When they want to be quiet, they can’t be. When they want to talk, no words come to them, or they say all the wrong things. But if you realize that this is all empty – not nothingness: it exists; it is real, but it’s empty, and you don’t have to give it any more importance than it deserves or it needs, life then becomes a graceful journey.
You will walk, live, speak, age gracefully. And that grace is the hallmark of true liberation. When you don’t let go of your grace and goodness, irrespective of the circumstances, you are being divine. You have subscribed to this philosophy of grace and goodness.
Nobody can lead you astray from this path. Some days, you may not be able to pray; other days you may not be able to meditate. At times, you may not be able to donate or do random acts of kindness. But you will not let go of your inherent goodness, the intrinsic grace that simply flows from you, because you have realized that it’s all empty. That’s the mind of a Zen meditator – or any meditator, for that matter – who would eventually reach that level of understanding or wisdom.
The Temple of Life
I want to tell you something interesting. The year before last was particularly hectic for me as I travelled far and wide and conducted many camps and retreats. This was in addition to my usual time spent in writing and in numerous private meetings and discourses at the ashram. This immoderate lifestyle with practically no rest took a toll on me and I consumed so much anti-allergy medication, because when I talked, my vocal chords became strained. The vegetation near the ashram wasn’t helping, either; there were a lot of allergens in the air. Around 1 January, I decided that in 2016, I wouldn’t have any pills whatsoever; I wouldn’t pop any anti-allergy medication and I wouldn’t take any syrup for coughing, and so on.
The whole year went by and I didn’t have to take any medication at all – although once, Swamiji (Swami Vidyananada – my disciple) gave me a powder of paracetamol with lemon: I had a high fever and I was in the middle of writing one of my books. Rather than stopping, I chose to continue. Other than that day, I did not take any medication at all. (This healthy streak continued in 2017 too.)
There are a few reasons why I could do this and maybe you can gain something from my experience. No, it’s nothing mystical, just some practical tips. First, I drank mostly hot water. It’s remarkable how many of the problems of allergies, congestion or sinusitis you can take care of just by drinking hot water. When you drink cold water, even room temperature water, and your vocal chords and throat is a bit clogged, it worsens it. Your mucus membranes start working overtime. If you drink more hot water, you won’t feel the need to take any medication one usually does during hay fever or change of seasons. You must try it. Hot water worked wonders for my throat and allergies. Even after talking for hours, my throat would not feel even a bit strained.
And second, equally, if not even more, important is cutting down on yoghurt or eliminating it entirely from your diet.
I am yet to see anybody for whom yoghurt is suitable. Yoghurt, or curd as it is normally called in India, is not good for most bodies. It’s tasty – there is no denying that – but it’s not good for you. If you cut down on it or remove it from your diet, you will not have so many allergies, especially with regard to the sinus, chest and throat. It’s very easy to do, and has a huge impact. Avoid yoghurt for two weeks or so and see the difference for yourself.
The third is cutting back on milk. Promoting milk as a health food is an elaborate sham of the dairy industry. Most people feel heavy or bloated when they drink milk. That bloating is your body trying to tell you, ‘I don’t want it’. Milk just sits in your tummy and kills your appetite. You cannot have a proper meal just after drinking milk. But w
hen the same milk is mixed in air, that is, when you drink a milkshake, even though the quantity of the milk may be the same, it impacts the body differently. You don’t feel quite so bloated because when air is mixed with the milk, it can actually move in your stomach.
To understand the effects of milk on your digestion, just take a saucepan of milk and heat it slowly and continuously. You’ll see the residue that the milk leaves.Milk is processed in your stomach the same way because there too is heat, though it takes much longer.19
We humans are the only species that keeps drinking milk after our mothers stop nursing us, and the only species who regularly drinks another species’ milk. Other mammals stop drinking milk after they are weaned, except perhaps our pets which we keep in that habit. Mother Nature has provided a mother’s breast milk only for the first years for a reason. When the child is old enough to eat a balanced diet without breast milk, there is no need to continue drinking it.
I usually advise people with allergies to stop drinking milk altogether, and most of their symptoms disappear, just with this. If you drink tea with a little milk, maybe this is okay because the milk is diluted and then boiled with tea leaves. Therefore you are able to digest it faster. If you drink proper coffee, it digests even sooner because the steamed milk added to coffee has air in it. In the olden days, and certainly in India, they stirred hot milk so much that air was mixed in it. This traditional method is sometimes used even today. But as it is, drinking milk is not good for you.
A young mother once anxiously approached Arnold Schwarzenegger and requested him to tell her young son who was with her at the time to drink more milk if he wanted to become big and strong like him.
‘Milk is for babies,’ Arnold replied instead.20 Though he might not have realized what a scientifically profound statement that was, eliminating milk from your diet is a definitive way to take control of your health.
Only two dairy products suit most people. They are still a bit heavy, but not as heavy on the stomach. One is high in protein, the other one in fat. The first is paneer (the Indian version of cottage cheese), which is made by adding citrus juice to milk. The milk curdles or splits, and the solids collected and strained is paneer. It’s very good for you, and has got a high concentration of protein. The second is ghee, or clarified butter. Although ghee is a dairy food, it is very non-dairy in its effects on the body, which is why it can be consumed with pretty much anything. Of course, consume it in moderation. Deep frying most of your food in ghee is totally different to having only half a spoonful on occasion.
Please bear in mind that sometimes, only simple things are needed to take care of your health.
I have shared this experience elsewhere too that during the days of intense meditation, when I was in the forests, I went through a period of excruciating pain. Due to prolonged meditation where I sat unmoved for ten hours straight and did another long session after a short break, my whole body would hurt. Most notably, my knees. Sometimes, I would just imagine that I had gone into that area of my body and all these cells were there; swollen, angry and agitated, lined up to fight against each other.My visualization was something like this: I would walk in there and tell them, ‘Hey guys, take it easy, there is no stress here. Calm down – nobody is trying to harm you, nobody is trying to injure you or hurt you. Just retreat. Let’s make peace and calm down.’
I would then visualize that they had shrunk to their normal size and become white and peaceful again, that there was no more tension; the cells were behaving gently and they were happy. I know it may sound funny, but 95 per cent of the time it worked and my pain would go away. Maybe 5 per cent of the time it didn’t because the pain was so intense; I could not visualize this, or I had immersed myself in my dhyana.
If you feel short of breath or there is any inflammation in your body, even a mosquito bite, just bring your centre of awareness to that region. Visualize that you are actually inside it, and the inflamed cells are retreating. The better the visualization, the more effective it is. I don’t have any scientific data to verify or prove that it will work for everyone, but it has for me, countless times.
Your body is a temple, a divine instrument, so treat it with care. No meditation is possible without a sound body. The palace in which your soul sits is not just any temple or even a Zen temple. It is the temple of life … your life lives in your body.
Emotional Hygiene and Cleansing (Osoji)
I once heard a beautiful story when I was a child. While most deities in Hinduism and Buddhism keep various implements (like trident, scimitar, mace, goad, etc.) Krishna keeps a flute. In his form of Vishnu, he may summon his discus, but according to the Hindu tradition, he keeps a flute adorned in a jewel-studded waistband on his pitambara, a yellow robe. This proximity of flute to Krishna made many other musical instruments wonder.
Once they got together and asked the flute, ‘What is so special about you that Krishna plays you with his lips while he rarely ever touches us?’
‘I am always empty,’ the flute replied.
Every day is a new day. We brush our teeth, put on fresh clothes, take a bath and so on. We eat fresh food, but we are not mentally fresh: we are carrying the same emotions from yesterday, the day before and the preceding weeks, months, years and decades before that. It’s pointless. Nobody has become better, stronger, or wiser, or experienced peace by harbouring negative emotions in their hearts. Whether or not someone deserves it, forgive if you want peace.
Some of you might imagine someone coming to you and saying, ‘I am very sorry for what I did, I want to be back in your life.’ That’s most unlikely to happen, so it’s better to assume that this person is never going to come back; that he or she is never going to seek forgiveness and could even hurt you again.
Having said that, this chapter is not about forgiveness, but what I call emotional hygiene. It is about emptying the baggage we carry in our minds. Believing Zen, if everything is empty, we may as well realize that essence in practice and not think of it merely as a philosophical proposition. And for that, I have a nice and simple method which is based on a Japanese tradition. It is not what they do in Zen monasteries and has not been part of any Zen tradition so to speak. Until now. It is now a part of my Zen tradition, our Zen practices. I tried it in different retreats across the world and found it to be highly effective.
This is called Osoji, a Japanese term for ‘clean and free’.
In Japan, once every year, people gather all the stuff in their homes in one place. Every item is moved: clothes, shoes, jewellery, toiletries and even household items are gathered in one place, in the middle of the living room.
Then they go through every single item, pulling out only what is absolutely needed and everything else is either thrown out or given away. People find that often they need no more than 30 percent of the stuff they had been keeping. It is one of the most effective ways of decluttering. And if you do this to your external world, your inner world will declutter automatically.
The more storage we have in our homes, the more junk we store. We keep stocking our cupboards, drawers and attics, all of which have nice doors we can shut. From the outside, it looks clean and orderly but inside there’s just so much we will rarely every use.
If you have ever moved houses (which probably all of us have at some point), you must have been surprised by all the stuff you had been keeping. When it’s tucked away in attics and other storage places, you don’t notice how things you’ve been keeping. When it’s time to pack, you think ten cartons will be enough, but when you are in the midst of the work, you realize even fifty cartons won’t hold it all.
That’s what happens with our minds and bodies. We keep putting stuff in them, thinking, oh, I am not carrying much, I am light I have no grudges against anybody. There are only one or two people I hate; I don’t have any problems with anyone else. But it’s when you do the moving that you realize how much is inside you. And it’s the things that we keep inside which affect our mental and emotional s
tate. If I keep flowers in the room, what will I have? Fragrance. Whatever you keep around you is going to impact your surroundings. All the emotions inside us determine how healthy we are going to be, at least emotionally and from the perspective of consciousness.
I don’t want to give you the idea that if you fall ill, there is always something wrong with you emotionally. But many people suffer from diseases in their lives because of the stuff they have been carrying around inside them. And for that stuff, there is no outlet – it keeps piling up, and it looks like those huge yards where scrap material is collected. Then it starts to overflow. It could come out in the form of a tumour, depression or other debilitating ailments in an otherwise healthy body.
Life’s problems will never end. Difficult people will always be in your life, as will challenges. There will be people who give you grief; there will be people who hurt you. None of that is going to change. Now that’s a given, what do you do? Do you not want to enjoy your silent moments? Do you want to keep complaining, keep crying? Are you going to keep worrying or are you going to do something about it?
The best thing you can do, at least in the present moment, is leave these other people behind. So often I say, when you are thinking about somebody negatively, you are simply causing yourself grief. The other person does not even know you are thinking about them. That’s a good trigger of mindfulness you can practise when you find yourself bothered by thoughts of somebody. Ask yourself, ‘As I am spending my time, thinking about that person, does he or she even know? Is it getting to them?’ If it is not, then what’s the point?