What do you think of Trump? Sansar and meditation don’t match.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF TRUMP?

I attended a gathering where I met many friends after a long time.

It was a pleasant experience.

Even in this relatively remote circle of friends, word has spread that I have been into spirituality, meditation, yoga, etc.

So, as I was talking to a friend, naturally, the conversation started deviating toward that.

“So, how is your life since retirement, shrenik?” I was asked.

“Wonderful. It couldn’t be better. I hike, travel, see my grandchildren, teach yoga, meditate, give lectures on veganism, etc. – all fun things to do in life.” I replied.

I knew that that friend had multiple personal issues, and he used to attend my spiritual lectures in the past.

But somehow, he just could not come to grips with going on that path, and he had left, saying,” What you are saying is impossible. No one can do it.”

I never try to convince people of anything, let alone spirituality.

So, now here I am, meeting him after a while, and I know that by now, his problems only had worsened, including a deteriorated married life and even divorce.

“I see a different light on your face since you have retired, Shrenik. “ he said.

I laughed and said, “I don’t know about light, but I definitely feel better and younger, physically fit from all my daily hikes and yoga, and more time for meditation, etc.”

As I said that, another friend interjected,” Yeah, I understand all that. With meditation, you will get some inner peace, but we still have to live in this world and face daily problems. What about that? I don’t think meditation is practical.”

“ Well, it depends upon how deep you get into meditation and how well your understanding has developed in that field.

Eventually, we need to learn to become an observer of our daily life, just as we observe our thoughts in meditation.

Spirituality does not differentiate between people or people’s thoughts.

People may be outside, but they are inside, too, as their thoughts.

By observing, we develop a tolerance for them both – the thoughts of the people and people both.

This way, peace of meditation starts entering our daily lives also. “ I said.

Somehow this was not going well with the friend who had interjected, as he had a hardened mind with many fixed beliefs.

He said,” C’mon, you can’t be just tolerant of evil. If you see it, you have to object to it and fight it, whether meditating or not.”

So, I said,” The problem is, not everything is so clear – good or evil.

Good can become evil, or worse, good could be already harboring bad within without you knowing it.

And the same way, someone looking evil could be harboring a seed of goodness to sprout someday.

So having fixed opinions about life only hardens our mind, keeping us occupied in Sansar and preventing us from reaching the beautiful state of consciousness, which is even softer than silk.” I explained.

I did realize that the mental states of both friends were beyond such in-depth spiritual discussion.

( Social gathering is the worst place to start a spiritual conversation, but somehow, this time, I couldn’t avoid it ).

So, at this point, the first friend said,” WHAT DO YOU THINK OF TRUMP?” – proving that he hasn’t gotten anything out of my spiritual explanations.

So, I repeated,” Having an opinion about anything or anyone ( indulging Trump ) itself is a mental suicide and prevents contact with the consciousness.”

I saw a thoughtful reaction on the face of the first friend, but the second friend was steadfast in the rigidity of his mind.

So, the next day, I wrote to my first friend in further detail.

“ Spirituality is meant for one’s inner peace. ( And not for solving the world’s problems – because that would involve changing others – which meditation can’t do ).

Sansar is not where peace is.

Peace is within.

The more you get involved with the world, the less peace you will have.

Whatever is necessary for daily life,
of course, we have to deal with it, no question.

But going over and beyond that and getting entangled with politics, world events, others’ problems, criticizing others’ behavior, etc., is taking us nowhere.

And the reality is that our opinions don’t mean much.

Things happen anyway, regardless of mournful opinions.

But meanwhile, we lose our precious chance to go within and find inner peace.

In Sansar, there is only restlessness, no peace.

One way to start walking away from the world is not to have any opinions about it ( just witness ).

Instead of dividing it into good and evil, watch it as a flow. ( which it is ).

But this is all very deep.

Significantly few people can grasp this, let alone follow it.

But ones who follow the path, sooner or later, find inner peace and die a content death.