The shadow of joy

A long shadow

Cast over the skies

Brings respite

From busy sights

Thousands of strings

A puppeteer’s fest

Tug at the hearts

Of men busy at work

Day and night

Contrasting colors

Come again and again

A reminder to the armchair bound

Of the shadow of joy

That lights the world

Giving every little pursuit

That much value

The shadow of joy

That no worldly light can match

Survives till time’s last instant

And never too late to find

Elephants on the prairie

A lonely proboscis leading the search

Supported by flat footed pillars

Across dust bowls of an alien land

Longing for a blade of grass

A stream of tears feed the crust

Around its eyes

As the blazing sun

Bakes it in

Its tusks now shaped

Into lifeless figurines on a dusty shelf

Leaving white stumps

Appearing like bleached fingernails

It is a long way from

A prior life

As a ceremonial elephant

Parading the streets of a temple town

Training the mind - 8

Sweet or sour, the choices

When five fingers unite

Time resets these flavors

Unfettered by the mind’s instant recoil

Only a few people have succeeded in climbing Mt. Everest without oxygen. The first to do it solo and without oxygen was Reinhold Messner in 1980. On reaching the summit without oxygen, his thoughts were: "In my state of spiritual abstraction, I no longer belong to myself and to my eyesight. I am nothing more than a single narrow gasping lung, floating over the mists and summits." It is remarkable he was able to think, let alone express such profound thoughts at that oxygen depleted altitude. At heights above 25,000 ft., called the “death zone”, experienced climbers, even with supplemental oxygen expend great effort over 10-12 hours to traverse a single mile. Our physiology is most suited for terrestrial life close to sea level. From this perspective, humanity is an extremely reclusive member of the cosmos. Sheltered by the sky and dependent on air, we can only go where the lungs are fed oxygen.

Training the mind - 7

Scattered by the Sun at its zenith

Lengthening at night

Shadows of doubt, a paper tiger

Fighting its creator, light

Celestial events like the solar eclipse have captured human imagination since ancient times. Rise and fall of kingdoms, victory or defeat in battle and many other significant events of the time were thought to be influenced by the shadow cast by the moon as it passed between the sun and the earth. Highly imaginative folklore since ancient times have invoked various reasons for the predictable natural phenomena of solar and lunar eclipses. Greeks considered eclipses as a sign of anger amongst the Gods. The Mayans thought that a Jaguar ate the sun. The Chinese and East Indians invoked a mythical dragon that periodically devoured the sun. Scientific advances in the last century have obtained very useful information from eclipses. One such advance was confirming Einstein’s general theory of relativity by Eddington’s observations. The eclipse of May 29, 1919 provided the opportunity to measure the bending of light from stars by the strong gravitational field of the sun, as predicted by Einstein’s equations. His predictions were confirmed, and the Newtonian theory of the universe faded. This finding has had immense practical and scientific applications. For example, every day use of the GPS would not be possible affecting everything from satellites to cars on the street.

Training the mind - 6

Limestone trellis, support for a time

Awaiting seedlings vibrant with life

At a hill’s side, a lifetime’s siege

There is no ease, threatened by disease

For those unfortunate people living in present day conflict zones, the principles of disease prevention is a luxury they can ill afford. They are more preoccupied with existential thoughts. Faced with the immediate threat of atrocities committed by minds that are the breeding grounds of hatred, intolerance and violence, survival mechanisms kick into high gear. For the lucky ones living in relative comfort in safer areas of the world, preventive measures against ill health are more of a necessity, to combat the fear of disease which could easily cut into their otherwise happy lives. In both these scenarios, the common theme is fear, the former group of people fearing outer enemies and the later living in fear of an inner enemy. In each of the two instances, the mind is the common area where the conflict originates. The outcome of this fear is a restless mind. A restless mind is ill equipped to deal to with the ever changing world. It clings to a concept of permanence that is as illusory as the spokes of a wheel giving the appearance of being stationary while the wheel is in motion.

Training the mind - 5

Emerging from a watery world

Disappearing into a dusty grave

Battles conceived in mountainous lairs

Winners and losers, mirages on low ground

The apostles of peace in the last hundred years, including Martin Luther King, Jr, Mahatma Gandhi and The Dalai Lama all stood for one principle, non-violence. Gandhi defeated colonialism through the power of restraint, not religion or rockets. Martin Luther King Jr. fought for social justice through words, not weapons. The Dalai Lama continues his fight for the independence of his people though the power of love and moderation and not missiles. All three of them are human beings just like everyone else. Their greatness lies in how they used their minds. They expected nothing for themselves, yet they gave a lot despite their hands being empty of wealth and power.

Training the mind - 4

A sticky glue

Trapping invisible ink

Seeking heaven and shunning hell

Scripting a journey by roll of dice

Life is one long sticky road. The mind is stuck with either the notion of happiness or unhappiness. Just as the evening sky morphs into the night sky, which in turn changes in the the morning, there is no period of time when a sense of happiness or unhappiness is absent from the mind. Just as light from the sun changes the color of the sky, thoughts can change the prevailing mood in the mind. The sky does not change, and the intensity of sunlight does not change, but it is the movement of the two relative to each other that changes. The interaction of mind and thought may be considered similarly. The subconscious mind is an infinite storehouse of thought and an endless chain of thoughts from the subconscious travels into the conscious realm. Each thought in the subconscious mind has a 50-50 probability of nudging us toward a more happy or a less happy state. Faced with this uncertainty in the quest for happiness, the conscious part of the mind tries to increase the odds of success by turning to the outside world. Through the senses, experiences are selectively sought to enhance the sense of happiness. This approach would work if the mind is satisfied with one object and that object remains unchanged with time. However, the mind is never satisfied with one object and everything external is subject to change.