But I have observed that sometimes life gives you rotten lemons so that all you can do is discard them. What do you do then?

All my life, I have been told by well meaning others that when things go wrong, the one thing that I should not let go of is hope; cling to it for dear life, because letting go of hope means giving up.

No one ever told me that sometimes there’s no scope of doing that. Yet there are times when life corners you in such a way that you have no room for escape.

I have come to realise that these times, when absolutely nothing is going right in your life and the world seems like a hostile place, when there’s simply no way out and you’re filled with feelings of hopelessness, that’s when the greatest opportunity for growth arises.

The Paradox of Hope

The exquisite paradox of life is that when I have nothing left, when I surrender and become open to total annihilation, that’s when, for the first time, I begin to live freely. Only when I lose everything, do I gain life. The irony is that once I accept total destruction, I stare at infinite possibilities. Then, suddenly, a different kind of peace descends and it dawns on me that only in total insecurity lies the opportunity to discover such peace.

This happens because, when there’s nothing more to lose, when nothing more is left in me to be destroyed, or taken away, I can relax—now there’s nothing to protect. No hopes to keep my attention fixed on some possibility in the future. When there’s nothing to look forward to, my attention comes back to where it belongs—on the present moment—and I begin to live and experience life as it is rather than trying to mould it according to my personal hopes and desires.

The Wisdom of No Escape

Pema Chödrön, Buddhist teacher and best-selling author of The Wisdom of No Escape explains, “When we commit ourselves to staying right where we are, then our experiences become very vivid. Things become very clear when there is nowhere to escape.”

When there’s no escape possible, when not even a ray of hope can be seen, then—and only then—can I accept darkness, and even befriend it. When I accept darkness, I begin to develop the ability to see in the dark. What’s more, all my other dormant senses come alive too.

But hope and acceptance don’t go together. Hope is a crutch. Only when I’m totally free of hope, when the ground beneath me disappears, can I learn to fly. That’s why I say, there is value in your feelings of hopelessness.

The post The Paradox of Hope appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

It seems there is a morbid satisfaction in imagining that they have big problems that cannot be resolved. First, they create misery mentally, and they somatise it – which means their psychological wound is translated into a physical wound. They start treating the physical ailment, forgetting completely that the origin is in their mind.

Tantra has a totally opposite approach. It is extremely life affirmative and asks people to look at the brighter side of things.

Osho has spoken extensively on the ancient Tantra treatise, Vigyan Bhirav Tantra. His vision is in tune with Tantra in terms of positive approach to life. There are 112 meditation techniques in Tantra that open the door to meditation. One of the beautiful and simple techniques is: Wherever satisfaction is found, in whatsoever act, actualise it.

It is so simple! You don’t have to own a Mercedes, or win the Nobel Prize, to feel satisfied. If your mind is not habituated to satisfaction, it will not feel satisfied even if you are made the king of the world.

Eternal satisfaction is about quality over quantity

Satisfaction is dripping through every moment of life, if you know the art of squeezing it. There are so many moments of gratification in a day. You feel thirsty, you drink water. Can anything match the satisfaction felt after the thirst is quenched? Tantra says, forget the water, forget the thirst—just remain with the subtle satisfaction that you are feeling. Be filled with it.

We wake up in the morning; a welcoming sun awaits us. We have a hot cup of tea; sipping the beverage gives us vibrations of satisfaction.

We go on missing satisfying moments because we are interested in quantity. We are interested in how to get more rich—in quantity, not in quality. We can have two houses and two cars, a big bank account, a collection of imported things.

Quantity changes: it becomes more and more. But, the quality of our mind remains the same. Basically, richness is not of things. Richness depends on the quality of the mind. If the mind that is earning knows how to enjoy the assets, it will enrich the quality of life. Even a poor man can be a rich man as far as quality is concerned. Likewise, even a rich man can be a poor man. Almost always this is the case, because a person concerned with things or quantity is totally unaware that a different dimension is there within him—the dimension of quality. And, that dimension changes only when the mind is positive.

Write it down

Try one experiment tomorrow: for the whole day, whenever you feel something beautiful, satisfactory, or something blissful, write it down. There are many moments in our day—be aware of it. You don’t notice them because the mind is bogged down by problems. The sun rises, the flowers open, the birds sing, and the breeze blows through the trees. A small child looks at you with innocent eyes, and a subtle feeling of bliss enters into you; or, someone smiles and you feel blissful.

Whenever you feel satisfied, verbalise it. Say loudly, “I am satisfied.” Or, may be, whisper to yourself, or sing that you are satisfied. Because, actualising satisfaction is like having a bouquet of fragrant roses in the room. Its fragrance permeates inside and outside of your being.

Last updated on 23^rd October 2019

The post The Tantra Approach to Eternal Satisfaction appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.