ADVENTURES IN ADVAITA VEDANTA...

Adventures in Advaita Vedanta, the philosophy and science of spirit. We are one you and I; are you curious why?..


Small Things

Hari Om

Each 'Choose-day' we will investigate the process by which we can reassess our activity and interaction with the world of plurality and become more congruent within our personality.

The next little prasaadam pushtaka we shall puruse is 'Many Problems One Solution', from Guru-ji, Swami Tejoymayananda.

Image result for apple treeOnce, a hungry person went to a shop to buy apples. Instead of apples, he was given the seeds that he could plant, which would become fruit-bearing trees yielding apples in abundance. In the same way, there are some 'seeds of wisdom' which can help us more than if we had direct help. Not that direct help itself in the instance is not to be given. However, learning how to deal with things for ourselves is not just empowering, but makes us a more useful unit of society and perhaps, one day, givers of wisdom ourselves!

The Nature of Problems.
If we analyse and observe, we will find that situations in life are what things which become problems. If you are comfortably sitting in your own house and begin to feel hungry, the hunger does not pose a problem. There is food in the kitchen - or if not, there is a restaurant along the street. However, if you are sitting in a strange place and food is not readily available, or you do not have the funds to purchase food, that situation presents itself now as a problem. How so? For we have not learned the necessarily skills to forage or have any avenue of working in exchange for food or the money to buy it. This leaves us in a state on not being able to deal with the situation.

A situation which we cannot cope with becomes a problem to us. If you understand the situation, but cannot find a remedy for it, this too is a problem. If the remedy is three, but it isn't within reach - again there is a problem. If everything is within reach, but you lack the skills or knowledge to apply the remedy, then the situation still presents as a problem.

It is a peculiarity of the human being that s/he readily makes his or her own problems; many people are very adept at making Mount Everest out of a bump in the pavement!

SAADHANA

Observe yourself for the next week. Note how you react to situations, no matter how small. Watch the dynamics and note down the responses. Consider the value of the responses in relation to the value of each situation. How did you cope? Could there have been a more efficient or comfortable approach?  Were you able to see how choices affect each situation?