Contradictions, Connects, Flows
Yaas after Tauktae.
Vaiskha Purnima. Buddha Purnima. The day of Siddhartha Gautama Buddha. His noble truths – there is suffering; suffering is caused; the suffering ends; and there is a way to end the suffering – disease, pathogen, health and cure. Self is a complex flow of physical and mental phemonena, and therefore a lable for their connectedness. Aatma, Anaatma. By becoming conscious of these, we release ourselves from our habits of mind, ignorance, appropriation, attachment, desire, aversion. Through developed ‘insight’ and/or practiced ‘meditation’. Following a middle path between indulgence and mortification. Between eternalism and annhiliationism.
Budha discusses six relationships – parents-children, teachers-students, spouses, friends, employer-workers, monks-followers – have to be intensely nurtured. Buddha offers eightfold path. Right view, resolve, speech, conduct/action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration/meditation/ekaagrata/dhyaana/samaadhi, leading to right knowledge/insight and liberation/vimukti. Reach a Guru, Buddha, and surrender. Buddham Saranam Gachchaami. Find the laws, Cosmos, Nature, and become one with them. Dharmam Saranam Gachchami. Gradually, practice and become eligible, and join the sangha. Sangham Saranam Gachchaami.
Buddha’s sangha started small but grew gradually to 60 to become champion monks. 4 months of retreat and 8 months of some sort of ‘campaign’. Slowly, it became an order. Then orders of men and women, following sapta sutra – regular meetings; discussions; training; respect to seniors; away from desires et al; aaraama life; mindfulness. Buddha left without naming any successor(s), but two abiding values – Dharma and Vinaya.
My co-alumnus, B Venkatesham, choose to release ‘Buddham Saranam Gachhaam’ satakam. Well received, Congratulations. Recently, he has also released another Sarala Satakam (free verse, 108 stanzas, 4 lines each, 4-5 words per line) – Jeevana Dhanya.
In news. Bee Day. ‘ Bee engaged; Build back better for bees’. Bees need to be there. Natural Farming helps.; Tea Day.
Padma Vibhushan Sundarlal Bahuguna, 94, succumbs to CoVID. Chipko Movement. Anti-Tehri dam Movement.
My sister Geeta recovered from CoVID. But her husband, Sudhakar could not. Succumbed, despite one vaccine. Collapsed second time, pressures dropped. Did not respond to inotropes. Sustained cardiac arrest, could not be revived. Sadgati. More – Friends, Colleagues, Teachers, Relations – have called it a day. Prakash, Sitaraman, Anindo, Sunil, Neeraj, Swadhin, Bijoy, Debjeet included. Classmates lost their parents, siblings. Some continue to battle it out. All in a couple of weeks. Terrible. Deeply impacted. Bruised all over. Numbed. Numbing intensified. Deep scars, deeper scars, deep inside and outside. Trying to be as normal as possible. Smiling, with the hope and faith, to get back. Because there is no otherway to be. We promise ourselves that we keep going, unlearning-learning, with all the love we possibly can give.
CoVID, Restrictions from CoVID, have impacted Development Sector significantly. Funds for other works are drying up. To this, FCRA Amendment and New Rules are troubling. FCRA Renewals are bot happening or delayed or SBI Delhi account opening is taking time. Most Philanthropy and CSR Funds are overstreteched for CoVID. Most works moved from scaling to survival, some how.
A French Virologist, Nobel Laureate Luc Montagnier says mass vaccination during the pandemic is creating the variants and leading to more deaths. May be a guess. May be a statement. May be it is antibody-dependent enhancement. Earlier he suspected SARS-CoV2 was man-made.
How do we go about discovering the potential – sampling with low risk experiments to discover what one loves doing; or early specialization in extremely narrow skill area without knowing why. The latter may hinder lateral thinking that connects disparate concepts-domains. This may also let us looking at every issue through the same lens, and amplify the bias(es). With artificial intelligence, automation, new technologies, it is possible that many of the narrow human skills go the way of algorithms. Therefore, can we prepare ourselves to be deep generalists?
The studies are repeatedly confirm the chemicals threaten life, life’s foundations. Diverse cover cropping and mulching reduce the need for chemicals. Therefore, NF is the way. NF conforms to all Agroecology Principles – diversity; knowledge co-creation; synergies; efficiency; recycling; resilience; human-social values; culture-food traditions; responsible governance; and circular-solidarity economy. It is also in sync with HLPE 13 principles – Recycling, Reduced and local inputs, soil health, animal health, biodiversity, synergy, economic diversification (portfolio), knowledge co-creation, social values-equity-diets, fairness-fair share, connectivity-short-local value-chains, land-resource governance, participation-inclusion.
NF Movement has to grow. The time is short. We need big shifts. Quick critical scale of farmer-farm worker families, farms, practices, customized models, champions; Substantial value-chain ownership and fair share; Ecosystem rewards to farmers; Viral knowledge; Farmer-Consumer movement; and Scaling-deep, up, out, impact, system(s), policy.
Came across: Gandhi’s two main activities with his hands – spinning, writing – writing letters, some 31000 in his lifetime. He inspired Ratnam from Rajahmundry to make total Swadeshi pen, ebonite, steel, silver and gold. Can we use one?
Quality sleep is a must for us. Bonus – freshness, de-stress, skin health, youthfulness. Get tired. Take a shower. Have some Switch-off lights and activity. Reflect-meditate. Reduce clothing on the body. Take a comfortable side, prone position. Can we understand our body, our emotions, our tones and tenors, our words, our thoughts? Can we understand the same for all around us? Can we bring more energy into our lives, more quality? Can we be fully aware and handle our fears, our sadness, our anger? Can we share grief and let it flow out without ‘violence’? Can we appreciate and support people around? Can we take in breakdown(s) to achieve breakthroughs? Can we spread happiness all around? Can we modulate, articulate truly deeply? Can we establish deep connect?
Can we discover we can flow bit-by-bit? Can we also realize sometimes we need to halt, pool up, and gush out? Deeper the attachments, connects, bonds, relations, habits et al, we need bytes, bigger bytes, GB/TB. Crashing is a way to clean up and renew afresh. Caterpillar has to go into pupa to come out as a butterfly. Carpet under the feet has to go off, to touch the soothing soil. Tears have to flow down to see clearly thereafter. Crises offer choices and freedom.
We are running several marathons in parallel. Different marathons. Different kind, differently wired. We may be together in many of these. May not be beginning-to-end, may not be from 1 to n. In some we will be solo – souls or slaves of lowest order; and in some soho – souls or slaves of highest order. Sometimes we know the rules of marathon. Sometimes we know the destinations. Sometimes we know timelines. Sometimes we know the co-participants. Many other times we do not know. We cannot know. In some, we come to know later. All these leave us confused, unhappy, frustrated, disappointed, angry. But, we need to be flowing and there is no way out. Therefore, can we accept these realities and coexistence flows?
Let us cry. Let us talk. Let us celebrate. Let us appreciate. Let us forgive. Let us forget the faults and frailties. Let us meet. Let us fight. Friendly fights. Let us be intense. Let us smile, laugh. Let us be wise and be ready. Now. Let us be compassionate. Let us love. Let us lead. Let us be proactive. Let us integrated all our contradictions in our being to be, to live, to coexist, to flow. Can we?
Yes, we can. If we think, if we emote, if we listen and talk, if we reflect, meditate, if we think, talk and do, if we coexist with life, if we coexist in N, if we keep flowing. For 7L.
Join us in the world of yoga of integrating contradictions for flowing in useful coexistence – anekatayoga for 7L.
G Muralidhar