What would I liked to be taught? Response to @Tribesteemup bi-weekly Question

Hello Kind Mindful Steemians!

“If you could Teach / Show everyone in the world one thing; what would it be?” This is the bi-weekly question posed by @tribesteemup. I would like to have been taught from childhood “how to be Blissful and Joyful within so our true nature of benevolence and compassion shine automatically.” Because how we see the world depends on the state of our mind. And generally, how people act in the world depends on how they feel inside. If mind is grumpy and irritated everything other people say can be nuisance at best or provocative at worst.

Unless we have mastered over your mind. But then if we are master of the mind then we would already be blissful and joyful, right? Coz why would anyone choose suffering over bliss or anger over joy? Am I saying we have a choice to happy or sad? Indeed. Not saying that I am happy and blissful all the time 😊. But

Credit: quotepics.com

Do you get enraged when someone cut you off on the road? Do you feel good when someone opens and hold door for you in the shopping mall? Does it hurt when you are ignored? Do you feel good when you receive a gift or someone praise you in the public? Why does the mind have craving for some experiences and aversion toward the others?

Mind
To answer this let us delve in to the four parts of mind as explained by the Buddha (pali words):

1. Vinnana (consciousness / cognizing part)
2. Vedana (sensation in the body)
3. Sanna (Perception / evaluation)
4. Sankhara (reactive part)

Vinnana’s role is to cognize what comes into contact with our sense sphere e.g. sound comes in contact with ear then vinnana recognise it as sound, smell comes into contact with nose vinnana recognises it as smell and so on. After cognizing, Vedana (sensation) follows – so contact of external objects (smell, sound, touch, taste, vision) with our sense sphere creates sensation in the body. Do you get the goosebumps when you hear one of your old favourite songs or eat spicy food? Once sensation is there, the Sanna (or evaluative part) start to evaluate whether the sensation is pleasant or unpleasant depending on past experiences and perception. Then based on Sanna (evaluative part), Sankhara reacts. If Sanna says it is pleasant sensation then Sankhara react with clinging or craving toward that sensation and if Sanna says it is unpleasant then Sankhara react with aversion.

So then, we are product of this reactive mind or sense gratification so to speak. Sankhara then is predominant in most minds since most of mind experience this world ONLY through five senses. What am I saying then? Yes, we can experience world beyond five senses. As I put it in my previous post - we are born as a seed, we have a choice to die as a seed (world experienced only through senses) or blossom into flower (experiencing the world beyond senses). How many times we have heard or read “do not judge people without knowing them” or “don’t take your thought for yourself” and so on? I love this hilarious video “Don’t judge quickly”.

And quite often for a quick fix we make rules and try to follow moral compass only to realize that they are not that effective or they have unintended consequences. We start telling our children what is good and bad based on our experiences 🤔. Buddha said that by working on vedana (sensation in the body) one can purify the mind making sankhara weaker and weaker and weaker so we start to see things in their true nature. And human true nature is benevolence not EGO. And I think Eckhart Tolle says “We are not fully human unless we have perfected in benevolence.” And if our true nature is benevolence how can we inflict sufferings on ourselves and others – it is out of question, right?

Sankhara is the foundation of EGO. Many wars can be stopped if egomaniacs TRULY realize that one day they too will die (well the way we know death). So how do we weaken sankhara? Meditation, mindful living inner journey are among some effective paths.

Credit: pinterest.com

Body
The importance of body in living blissful and joyful life cannot be underestimated it. After all body and mind are not isolated, they are absolutely connected, and one has effect on another. What we eat, how we sit and walk, how we breath, our postures all have effect on our body. How do we know what or how is good for our body? As Sadhguru puts it – we have developed so much in engineering in the external world but we know very little about our own unique, super powerful machine, the body. When we are driving we know what gear to drive to go fast, what to do to slow down, where to look for right turn and so on. But do we know what to do when body is saying you are going too fast? Or Body says you need to reverse gear? Or fear arise and heart rate increase - what can be done?

I believe we will hugely benefit from the fundamental teachings on inner working of mind and body. If we know we have choice - would we choose bliss over suffering? And if we are blissful and joyful could we really harm or hurt ourself or others? If not, then altruism, benevolence and compassion is just natural state.

With Peace Love & Joy 🕉❤️😊
Let’s grow together in wisdom through #meditation 🧘🏼‍♂️🧘🏼‍♀️