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H. H. SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR
25 Ways to Improve Your Life
1st edition: March 2010
2nd edition: May 2010
Copyrights 2010 © All rights reserved.
Printed in India by Elegant Printing Works, Bangalore
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eISBN 978 9 351 06631 6
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Transform yourself
- H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
In this era of science and technology, we can be creative and productive, and at the same time not lose the humanness that we are all born with. Just material things or comfort alone do not make you comfortable. You may have a good bed to sleep on, but unable to sleep because of insomnia or worry! You need to get a broad understanding about yourself and your priorities. Clarity in the mind makes things much easier. Understanding your basic emotions like love, your interaction with people around you, knowing about your ego or what your intellect or mind is saying to you and introspection will give you a few minutes of relaxation which is very vital. So, what is most important is introspection about one’s own life and how to improve the quality of life.This intention itself will open many doors for you to feel better about yourself. First of all, find out for yourself whether you are healthy.
Health is...
A disease-free body. A quiver-free breath.
A stress-free mind.
An inhibition-free intellect.
An obsession-free memory.
An ego that includes all.
A soul that is free from sorrow.
Have you ever thought
1 What is the purpose of your life?
2 What is the meaning of life?
3 What is life all about?
These questions are very, very precious. When these questions dawn in your mind, only then your life begins! But, when these questions come into your mind, don’t be in a hurry to get an answer. Those who know will not tell you and those who tell; don’t know! You can plug your ears and walk off! These questions are the tools by which you can dig deeper and the answers come from within you. Once these questions come into your life then you start “living” life rather than just existing. To know for what you are on this planet, find out what you are not here for!
You are not here to be sad.
You are not here to blame.
You are not here to be miserable.
You are not here to worry.
You are not here to show off.
You are not here to get stressed out.
You are not here to get irritated and irritate others.
The list goes on. . . . .
All our struggles in life is to know more. You are trying your level best to understand your feelings and emotions, and you get into more and more and more confusion. This is what has happened with psychology today. It tries to explain to you why you feel like the way you are feeling. The ‘why’ arises always when you are unhappy. You ask ‘‘Why this problem to me of all the people?’’ Nobody ever asked, ‘‘Why am I so happy?’’ You want to understand, ‘‘Why am I not feeling good?’’, or ‘‘Why am I angry?’’, or ‘‘Why is this not happening?’’ The more you try to understand and try to dig in, you seem to understand less and less. The mystery deepens, an illusion comes as though ‘‘I know it’’. But that is for a short while. We ourselves do not know and we try to explain to others! Stop your explanations; your explanations put you into a soup and also make other people more confused. You don’t know what is happening in your mind. Mind is like a roller coaster. It’s a crowd. Just be in the simple and innocent state of ‘‘I don’t know!’’. This life is a mystery- it’s beautiful-live it. Living the mystery of life totally is joy. Becoming the mystery is divine. You are a mystery!When you see life in this context, clarity dawns in your mind and your life improves.
1. Review the context of your life
Look at your own life in the light of time. Millions of years have passed and millions will come.
What is your life? 60, 70 or 100 years? Span of life is insignificant. It is not even a drop in the ocean. In terms of space you simply don’t exist! This understanding dissolves the ego. Ego is ignorance of your reality, ignorance of your existence. Now, just to know this, do we have to do something else? Just open your eyes and ask: ‘‘Who am I? How I am on this planet? What is my life time?’’ Awareness dawns in the mind, and you will stop worrying about little things like, ‘‘This person said this thing to me and that person broke away with me and this happened with that person and I am going to say this....’’ All smallness will simply drop away, and you will be able to live every moment of your life. Your life reels around your context. You should be happy in life. All other businesses involve ups and downs which is very natural. If there is a body, then it will get cold, cough, fever or something else and it will go away. But take care to see that happiness is always established in you. That is known as Purushartha. Our love, faith and belief should be deep-rooted, then everything else moves on its own. How many events take place in life! Are you able to maintain your equanimity always? Not everything in the world is sweet. If you are grounded in faith, like the husk with grain, you will progress. Take this decision, “Whatever happens I will be there. I will be grounded. God’s protection is there on me. Whatever happens, I will never go down. I always have God’s hand with me.” Keep your mind in peace in all situations. The rest will be taken care of. You have to take at least one step forward, which is to be in peace and equanimity.
“Oh! Nothing happened. Nothing of my work happened.” If you are able to laugh in such a situation, then understand that you have protection with you! The world is filled with love. Everybody has love inside them. You have to see that in your mind.
Your head will be in the mud in a few years; don’t put mud in your head while you are still alive!
If you review the context of your life, the quality of your life will improve.
2. Know life’s Impermanence
See the impermanence in this life. That is the truth. Turn back and see that all that you did is like a dream. All have passed, the whole thing is finished. Tomorrow will pass.
Now and then, a pinch of unpleasantness comes. It makes you aware of your pleasantness. Suppose you never had unpleasant moments in life, you would never have pleasant ones. Your life would stagnate in utter boredom and you would become like a stone. So, in order to keep you alive, now and then, here and there, nature gives you a little pinch. It makes life more lively. Accept it. You don’t have to be afraid in life. There is always support. So, every pinch that you are having in life is for the best, to make your life more lively and enjoyable.
Day and night you work so hard. The whole week is spent working, coming home tired, eating, going to bed. The same routine the next day. Weekends have become another routine. If you’re awake, then you see there is so much foolishness! Just watch when four or five people get together and have a gossip session. In a gossip session, you can immediately change the topic of conversation. This is the thing with a crowd. If ten people are talking about the weather and you change the topic to stock markets, everybody will immediately talk stock markets, whether they know about them or not. It is great fun.
Being aware of this impermanent nature of our life, you find that there is something in you that has not changed. There is a reference point by which you can say things are changing. That reference point is the source of life. That is wisdom. With wisdom, your life improves.
3. Make your smile cheaper
A research done in England found that a baby smiles 400 times a day, an adolescent 17 times and an adult doesn’t smile at all! The More successful people keep a very stiff face. Is roughness a sign of success? Is being stressed a sign of prosperity, growth or dignity?
You should smile more. Every day, every morning, look at the mirror and give a good smile to yourself. You know what happens when you smile? All the muscles in your face get relaxed. The nerves in your brain get relaxation, and you get the confidence, courage and energy to move on in life.
You know, your smile is so fragile! Just one telephone call is enough to take it away! But what is the big deal about your feelings? Bundle them up and throw them into the ocean!
Once you are rid of your ‘feelings’, you can be happy. Just see why your spirits go down? Because somebody said something stupid to you. And why did they say a stupid thing? Because they had some garbage they needed to throw out and you were there, ready to catch it! And once you have caught it, you hold on to it so passionately! Come on! Wake up! Don’t let your smile be snatched away by anybody!
Usually, you give your anger freely and smile rarely as though a smile is costly. In ignorance, anger is cheaper and smile costly. In knowledge, a smile is free like sun, air, and water; and anger is extremely expensive, like a diamond. Make your smile cheaper and anger expensive! You are here for a greater cause. Just remember that. Take a challenge: “Come what may, I am going to smile today and be happy!” Smile more.
4. Be enthusiastic and praise others
Enthusiasm is the nature of life. We often have a tendency to put cold water on other’s enthusiasm.
Reverse this tendency. Take every opportunity to praise others and support their enthusiasm. If you put down other’s enthusiasm, the same may happen to you. As you sow, so shall you reap. Recollect how much enthusiasm and joy you had when you went to the primary school. Someone without enthusiasm is like a corpse. But as you mature, the enthusiasm curve declines. As enthusiasm declines, we stop communicating.
How would you like to see yourself ? Happy and bubbling with enthusiasm or dull and difficult to please? Often, you like to be pleased, appeased and cajoled. So you put up a tough, upset face and act difficult to please. If a person has to appease and please ten people all the time, it will be so tiring. People who keep a long face and expect others to cajole and appease them make others run away. Lovers often do this. They expend a lot of energy in cajoling, and this brings down the joy and celebration of the moment.
If you feel down, appease and please yourself. Your need to be appeased by someone else is the sign of grossness. If you want attention, all you get is tension. It is not possible to attain Divine Love with a complaining face. Become one whose enthusiasm never dies.
5. Make meditation a part of your life
The higher goals in life can only be realised through a few minutes of meditation and introspection.
What is meditation?
Mind without agitation is meditation.
Mind in the present moment is meditation.
Mind that has no hesitation, no anticipation is meditation.
Mind that has come back home, to the source, is meditation.
Mind that becomes “no mind” is meditation.
Deeper you are able to rest, dynamic you will be in activity. Even though deep rest and dynamic activity are opposite values, they are complementary. Before the body leaves you, you learn to leave everything. That is freedom. What are you looking for? Are you looking for some great joy? YOU ARE JOY!
I will give you an example. Have you seen dogs biting bones? You know why they bite bones?
Biting creates wounds in their mouth. Its own blood comes out and the dog feels that the bone is very tasty! Poor dog spends the whole time chewing the bone but getting nothing out of it! Any joy you experience in life is from the depth of your Self, when you let go all that you hold on to and settle down being centered in that space. That is called meditation. Actually, meditation is not an act; it is the art of doing nothing! The rest in meditation is deeper than the deepest sleep that you can ever have, because in meditation you transcend all desires.
Meditation is letting go of anger from the past and all the planning for the future.
Meditation is accepting this moment and living every moment totally with depth. Just this understanding, and a few days of continuous practice of meditation can change the quality of our life. The best comparison of the three states of consciousness-waking, sleeping and dreaming is with nature. Nature sleeps, awakens and dreams! It happens in a magnificent scale in existence, and it is happening in a different scale in the human body. Wakefulness and sleep are like sunrise and darkness. Dream is like the twilight in between.
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