Two Ways To Meet The World.

There are two distinct ways we can go out in the world, one is where we demand and seek attention and the other where we simply want to enjoy the experience of being with others.

The former is a vulgar, egoistic and self centered way of going about life and the latter is a more inclusive and compassionate way of going about it, the latter also allows us to enjoy life in all it's glory and can make some of the more mundane of tasks quite delightful.

Imagine going out to get an ice-cream for yourself, if you are self centered all you want is for the ice-cream vendor to give you undivided attention and fulfill your order before everyone else, we then proceed to devour the ice-cream , often forgetting to enjoy it and after a while not even remembering the taste or experience of enjoying it, it can sometimes leave you with a hollow feeling.

The second way of doing same task would be where you enjoy the walk to the ice-cream parlor, acknowledge the presence of others at the shop, wait for your turn, bask in the excitement of fellow ice-cream fans and have gratitude for the entire experience of eating the ice-cream. Straight away this would be a more fulfilling way of not just enjoying an ice-cream but also the motivation to live an entire life like that.

A lot of us are aware of our shortcomings about our behavior and promise ourselves to behave ourselves when the next opportunity presents itself but since we are world champions at being the exact replica of ourselves from yesterday, chances come and go and our behavior seldom changes, we move on promising ourselves to change the next time but the vicious cycle never goes away, the question is why is that?

Being aware of our shortcomings particularly related to our mind does little to make amends, the only way to bring about meaningful change comes through meditation. Just like watching a lot of bodybuilding videos on YouTube won't give you muscles, similarly listening to sermons of the wise won't provide wisdom, all it can provide is the motivation to meditate, unless one sits down in formal meditation there is just no way to bring about any kind of lasting change in our behavior, and the practice need not be more than 10 minutes a day, so without further ado sit in silence for 10 minutes, focus on your breath and observe the thought that come and go whilst you are at it, this might sound very innocuous but in essence it is very powerful.