Strength within
Ms. Rahayu Ratnaningsih's article Meditating on emptiness results in freedom in The Jakarta Post of Dec. 19, 1999, was thought-provoking.
In essence, Ms. Rahayu says that the concept of "I" is emptiness. When we realize this emptiness, it gives us enormous freedom and we no longer bind ourselves to our mind or body. We can now see the "beyond". We can exercise this abundant inner strength for the good of humankind.
Stephen Covey, whose much acclaimed book The 7 habits of highly effective people is now the standard source material for many training courses for effective management and leadership, identifies four unique human endowments: * Self-awareness, ability to think about our very thought process * Conscience, moral nature -- sense of right or wrong * Imagination, envisioning power * Independent will, ability to act based on our self-awareness.
According to Covey, there is a space ("freedom to choose") between "Stimulus" and "Response". All proactive (habit no. 1) people successfully use this freedom to think deeply and decide the right course of action. Reactive people, on the other hand, act out of feelings or emotions, without realizing the power of the "thinking" space between "Stimulus" and "Response".
"Who am I?" is a search for knowledge of the true self. For simple understanding, when we say "my pen", it's clear that "my" is different from the "pen". Similarly, when we say "my body" or "my mind", it is obvious that "my" should be different from the "body" or "mind". "My" means "I own it". If I don't own my mind or body, who am "I" then? The resultant answer is "I" is non- physical i.e. I live in the body but I'm not the body. Because of this distinction, "I" can witness all the changes of body and mind, but "I" itself remains constant.
Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi described this phenomenon thus: "Since every thought can occur only after the rise of the 'I- thought' and since the mind is nothing but a bundle of thoughts, it is only through the inquiry 'Who am I?' that the mind subsides. Moreover, the integral 'I thought' implicit in such inquiry, having destroyed all other thoughts, gets itself finally destroyed or consumed. Just as the stick used to stir the burning funeral pyre gets consumed" (The Mountain Path, 1991).
A disciple of Maharshi elaborated on this, saying: "That which remains -- pure consciousness or awareness of our being -- is the self. The quest 'Who am I?' ends in the experience 'I am that I am'" (The Mountain Path, 1992).
This inward-looking spiritual journey is aimed at subservience of ego and curtailment of our desires. This was succinctly expressed by Shri Sathya Sai Baba during a conversation with a Dutch woman. She sought Baba's blessings, saying: "I want peace". Baba said smilingly: "Peace is within you. There's no need to search for it outside".
"How come?" she asked. "Remove the first two words from what you have just said," Baba replied. "'I' stands for your ego and 'want' is your desire. By removing both your ego and desire, you'll realize that peace is indeed within you."
D. CHANDRAMOULI
Jakarta