The MOST DIFFICULT THING TO DO?

7th April 2022

What is the most difficult thing you have done? Running a business unit, doing research for a new idea? inventing something new? Earning a living? Raising a kid? Handling life-threatening disease? Or any adverse situations in the profession, job or business?   Or some adrenaline rush activities like scuba diving, sky diving or running ahead of a raging bull at the San Fermin festival in Spain?

Recently I gave a three-day service at a Vipassana centre and got to practice Vipassana mediation for a few hours in a day with service is thrown in between.  Took me back to my first course when I learnt the most difficult thing to do. 

The most difficult thing I have learnt and is still a work in progress is to observe my breath. After years of regular practice, it remains a work in progress. Find it funny, try it.  Just try observing your breath for five minutes. Doing it while keeping your eyes open is impossible, but doing it with your eyes closed is also very difficult

This is the first thing one is told to do at the 10 day Vipassana course. Close your eyes and observe your breath. Breath coming in, breath going out. Focus on the entrance of the nostrils and notice the passing of the breath through the nostrils. Do not follow it into your lungs or outside into the air, just in and out of the nostrils. The objective is not to miss any breath. Yes, not a single breath.  Your mind should act like a doorman to the nostril and should not allow any breath to pass without its observation. There is no “right” way for the breath to be felt;  just be aware of what it is.   

What you will notice after some time is that your mind has wandered. Each time you notice your mind has wandered to other thoughts or is caught by background noises, bring your attention back to the easy, natural rhythm of your breathing.”

The last sentence underlined is very critical. If your mind is caught wandering, bring it back to your breath the moment you realise.  Breath is something that will not go away, will not wander, it may go fast or go slow but will always be there. If it is no longer there, one does not exist. But the mind is on a trip of its own and when you realise it has wandered, come back the breath coming in and going out. 

Put on a timer on your mobile for five minutes, close your eyes and start observing your breath.  

Well did your mind wander? For 99.99% of the people, the answer will be yes, the mind did wander. The balance 0.01% whose mind did not wander are wasting time in normal human endeavours like us hoi polloi are on the road to Nirvana.

Now comes the critical question. Your mind is supposed to observe the breath but it wanders.   Who or what realises that the mind has wandered?  

Parag Shah of MechSoft Pune gives a nice short answer. “The pure self/ the life - matter (consciousness) is independent of mind - we can call it consciousness/ aatmaa/ soul - whatever you name - it is the entity that exists (…beyond death also)

Suppose a person dies and is reborn as a frog.  The life matter is still there - but the mind? The mind is not the same now. It is this permanent self/ existence that is independent of mind and body. The body is just hardware. To give a crude example to explain: You have a mobile phone. It is features, smart features and all that. The hardware breaks down, and your login from another mobile with the same number, same google account. This number is your entity - the mobile hardware, and the installed software are temporary associations.”

Another way to have total attention to what you are doing, not just breathing is to do some adrenaline rush activities mentioned before like scuba diving, sky diving or running ahead of a bull in the San Fermin festival in Spain. Well, when one does any such activities there is no scope for the mind to wander. If you are falling from 10000 feet doubt you will think about anything else but to land safely. 100% of your mind is focused on one goal, reaching earth safely.   The adrenaline rush comes from 100% focus on one activity. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls this 100% focus on one activity being in flow in his book called, what else but “Flow”.  (On a lighter note - to pronounce or spell his name also correctly one has to be in “Flow” or will misspell it.)  

PS: Why these three adrenaline rush activities in particular? These three activities were there in the movie Zindagi Naa Milegi Dobaara. The three protagonists discover themselves after each of these activities and show their evolution that helps them face the truth about themselves.   The diving inspector explains the link with diving and meditation “Diving is like meditation. Insaan ko apni ek ek saans, ek ek pal ka ehsaas hota hai.  Just imagine agar hum apni saari zindagi aise hi jee sakte. Be fully alive to each and every moment. (Translation -  Diving is like meditation. You’re conscious of every breath, every moment. Just imagine, living your whole life like this. Being fully alive to each and every moment.)

Well, there is an easier way also – go to a ten-day Vipassana course to sit and observe your breath and body. Unless of course, Katrina Kaif is the trainer for one of the activities, diving, as in the movie. And yes she does say, all these activities are like meditation. The choice is yours dive, jump, run or sit and observe the breath.  All are difficult but cannot dive in an ocean, jump from sky and run every day ahead of a bull, but can sit and observe breath every day every minute.   

PS: But my 10-year-old son prefers roller coaster rides, sky jumps and other such activities, no sitting in one place and observing his breath for him, even though there is no Katrina Kaif not like you who read this article because of this photo