by Om Swami
Similarly, your life has a life of its own. If you love, value and protect it, it would want to be with you. It’s truly yours. But if you are going to hurt it, it will fly far, far away from you. Be kind, be gentle and the swan of life will come alive in your hands.
As you are hurt when the other person doesn’t appreciate your efforts, life is hurt too when you keep resisting rather than appreciating what it’s doing for you.
Life is frightened and hurt when you shoot arrows of jealousy, complaints and selfishness. Every time that happens, it distances itself from you. And when your own life moves away from you, nothing in the world can make you happy then. I would like to make clear that by life, I’m not talking about the physical being, but the essence of life that is a sense of peace and bliss. There is no point in mistreating or neglecting your life because nothing hurts as much as neglect.
A visitor met with a Zen monk who offered him tea. The handle of the tiny cup, paper thin, broke as soon as the visitor held it.
‘Why do you make your cups so delicate?’ he asked, frustrated and embarrassed in equal parts.
‘It’s not that the cups are delicate,’ the monk replied, while sipping his tea joyously. ‘You just don’t know how to handle it.’
It’s all about how you handle life. It is what it is. If you deal with life compassionately, gratefully and delicately, you will discover that it’s every bit as beautiful and that it belongs to you wholeheartedly.
Learn to love life for what it is. Learn to listen to it and appreciate it. It’s funny but true that when we start adjusting to what life has planned for us, it starts to move according to us. If we keep hurting it and battling with it, life will ignore us completely and begin to distance itself.
The answer to the question, ‘Why are you hurting me, life?’ begins with, ‘Why are you hurting life?’
Don’t hurt what you want to keep. If you want to keep it, that is.
No violent thoughts.
No violent emotions.
No violent words.
No violent actions.
Live like you want to. You deserve it. I hope that in case I failed to serve you wisdom through my words, at least the cartoons made you smile. If you smiled and felt warm while reading this book, I consider my effort worthwhile. Love and Peace.
Live. Love. Laugh. Give.
How, you ask?
Breathe. Smile. Meditate.
Let Go.
List of Illustrations
Illustration Artist Page
1 36 Days Tim Cordell 35
2 No Mind Tim Cordell 44
3 Zen Dishes Tim O’Brien 51
4 Meaning Sidney Harris 58
5 Fab Four Tim Cordell 98
6 Zen-Freud Sidney Harris 104
7 Vladimir Putin Baloo Rex-May 112
8 At Least Sidney Harris 116
9 Happiness Chris Madden 124
10 Without Splash Andrew Toos 135
11 Forgiveness Ron Coleman 140
12 Serenity Baloo Rex-May 146
13 Zen Pizza Baloo Rex-May 158
14 Reasonable Tim Cordell 173
15 One Day Tim Cordell 180
16 Enlighten Up Tim Cordell 185
The above illustrations have been sourced under publishing license from cartoonstock.com.
17 Thought-Bubbles on page 1 is from Sit Illustrated: The Meditation Cartoon Book. Used with permission.
18 Buddha-Jesus on page 130 has been reprinted with permission from Dan Piraro.
Notes
1Throughout this book and in all my other writings, I don’t refer to Buddha as The Buddha (as is the convention), but simply as Buddha. So, whenever I say Buddha, I’m not referring to everyone’s Buddha nature but the Buddha who was born 2500 years ago.
2Gina Hartnet, an expert in Japanese was kind enough to explain the subtle difference between Kensho and Satori. Kensho (the ‘sho’ is a long ‘o’ – pronounce it as if it were ‘or’ on the end) is a composite of two Chinese characters – the first is the character for ‘to see’ and the second is for ‘essence’ or ‘nature’ or even ‘sex’. Satori is from ‘satoru’ which means to contemplate, understand, ruminate or meditate.
3The Hidden Lamp, Caplow, Moon et al., Wisdom Publications, 2013, Boston.
4Old Path White Clouds, Thich Nhat Hanh, Parallax Press, 1987, Berkeley.
5ibid.
6ibid.
7Though to be fair, those were the early years. As time passed and Buddha’s popularity soared, it became exceedingly difficult for his monks to have a personal audience with him. To maintain and manage the growing number of viharas, rules, precepts and rituals were introduced. From prostration, chanting to meals and robes, etc. Most of these were documented after Buddha’s passing, though in Tripitaka – the Buddhist canon.
8Using Amazon’s ‘Look Inside’ feature I had once read this in the prologue of a Hindi book. But I never bought that book as I wasn’t keen on reading fiction at the time and for the life of me I can’t recall the name of the book or its author. This was a beautiful quote that touched me the moment I read it.
9My own contextual rendering of the Prajna Paramita Sutra: panca-skandhās tāś ca svābhava śūnyān paśyati sma.
10The six paramitas given by Buddha were charity (dāna), moral conduct (śila), patience (kśanti), courage (virya), meditation (dhyāna) and wisdom (prajā).
11ibid.
12I first read this story where the setting was North America and the master was a Native American. I couldn’t trace its source. Later, I came across this story in Ajahn Brahm’s Don’t Worry, Be Grumpy.
13In the broad field of battle, in the bivouac of life, be not like dumb driven cattle, be a hero in the strife… From his poem A Psalm of Life.
14My own translations.
15ibid.
16ibid.
17na tad bhāsayatesūryonaśaśāńkonapāvaka yadgatvānanivartante tad dhāmaparama mama. (Bhagavad Gita, 15.6) My divine abode (of attainment) is beyond the reach of the sun, moon and fire. The one who attains that state, there is no return for such a person.
18I have shared more on how different foods impact our body in my book on Ayurveda and health called The Wellness Sense, published by HarperCollins India.
19The full quote was ‘Milk is for babies. Beer is for boys.’ I can’t validate if beer is actually for boys, for I’ve never had beer in my life and I am way past my boyhood. At least two boyhoods by now.
20Bhagavad Gita, 18.10. This is my own translation. Throughout this phenomenal text, Krishna has repeatedly called a yogi a person who lives with equanimity. Krishna posits that the one who follows discipline and carries out his practices with enthusiasm and dispassion is fit for meditation.
21For five years, I wrote every Saturday and now it’s every first and third Saturday of the month on my blog omswami.com. One of the reasons I’ve given this detail of my writing psychology and routine is to let you know that anyone can write. I have zero talent for writing, but I write purely as a matter of discipline. Many people who follow me think that they can’t be writers or that I’ve become one because I have something special, supernatural or extra thing going on for me. Well, it’s not true. Anyone who is willing to sit down and write can master this craft. By sharing this information, I hope you feel inspired to walk your path with discipline knowing that everyone (including me) faces similar challenges and a similar learning curve.
22Legend has it that Ramakrishna himself had asked this question to his Guru, Totapuri, a Naga saint, who spent his days in Samadhi and yet he meditated every day. His Guru had given him this answer pointing to his own waterpot which was made of brass.
23Tai Sheridan, Buddha in a Blue Jeans: An Extremely Short Zen Guide to Being Buddha, Poet Poppy Press, 2011.
24A Million Thoughts, Black Lotus, 2016.
25ibid.
About the Book
Many of us struggle to remain calm during the day or to fall asleep at night. Our restless, treacherous minds make
us feel good one moment and terrible another. From where do negativity and anguish engulf us and how do we go about being serene and peaceful?
Zen shows us the art of attaining that inner quietude without rituals or dogma. It is about seeing beauty, bliss and truth in our everyday lives. Driving to work or washing the dishes, every act could easily be meditation. Based on the original Zen teachings, this beautiful book offers a life-changing perspective on life itself.
Bestselling author of many transformational books, Om Swami shares with you the art of happiness with plenty of humour, stories and wisdom as he takes you on a journey from being mind full to mindful.
About the Author
Om Swami is a mystic who lives in the Himalayan foothills. Prior to renunciation, he founded and ran a multi-million dollar software company with offices across the world. He is also the author of the bestselling books If Truth be Told: A Monk’s Memoir (HarperCollins, 2014), The Wellness Sense: A Practical Guide to Your Physical and Emotional Health Based on Ayurvedic and Yogic Wisdom (HarperCollins, 2015), When All Is Not Well: Depression, Sadness and Healing – A Yogic Perspective (HarperCollins, 2016), and The Last Gambit (HarperCollins, 2017).
Also by Om Swami
1.If Truth Be Told: A Monk’s Memoir
2.The Wellness Sense: A Practical Guide to Your Physical and Emotional Health Based on Ayurvedic and Yogic Wisom
3.When All Is Not Well: Depression, Sadness and Healing – A Yogic Perspective
4.A Fistful of Love: Wisdom and Humour from a Monk’s bowl
5.Kundalini: An Untold Story
6.A Million Thoughts: Learn All About Meditation from the Himalayan Mystic
7.The Ancient Science of Mantras: Wisdom of the Sages
8.The Last Gambit (Fiction)
9.A Fistful of Wisdom: A Monk’s Light Musings on Life’s Serious Stuff
Plus, nuggets of wisdom and humour served twice a month on www.omswami.com
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First published in India by
HarperCollins Publishers in 2018
A-75, Sector 57, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201301, India
www.harpercollins.co.in
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Copyright © Om Swami 2018
P-ISBN: 978-93-5277-763-1
Epub Edition © April 2018 ISBN: 978-93-5277-764-8
The views and opinions expressed in this book are the author’s own and the facts are as reported by him, and the publishers are not in any way liable for the same.
Om Swami asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved under The Copyright Act, 1957. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers India.
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