The word vicissitude is summed up in the Webster’s dictionary as “a difficulty or hardship attendant on a way of life, a career, or a course of action and usually beyond one’s control”. This being the case, many people are unhappy because of the vicissitudes of life. It is true that circumstances bring in hardship. Strangely, we see only one side of it, as if one hand can clap.
We forget that the other side is provided by our own state of mind. While we cannot be in absolute control of the circumstances, it is possible for us to pay attention to the way we respond. Much of the problems won’t be problems if we removed our side of the clapping. This needs deep interest in understanding our mind and its responses.
A theoretical knowledge in that direction, such as a college degree in psychology, cannot help. This is so because that kind of study is verbal and accumulative in its process. It does not involve direct awareness and its non-accumulative understanding.
The verbal knowledge leads to a kind of burden which effectively thwarts direct awareness. There are also other items of burden that we gather as we grow. The mediocrity in life is primarily because of this unnecessary weight we carry with us.
A lot of mental accumulations can be dropped off, to move into a state of inner freedom. All it needs is the interest in taking an inward journey that is not dependent on any DOs and DON’Ts or on religious preaching. The journey becomes easier and easier as we move on.
By the time people come to their middle age, the mental burden they carry is indeed awesome. Having allowed it to happen all along, they begin to wonder how to be peaceful, happy etc. Unless the burden is dropped off, life would become dull. Some success here and there can make a change, but the dullness soon returns pushing us back to square one.
So, the question is: How can one drop off the burden? The interesting thing about it is that this question itself asks for a new effort and so adds to the burden! The situation seems hopeless, doesn’t it? It is like heads you lose and tails the other wins.
Once we see the intriguing nature of this puzzle, we embark on an inward journey of discovery that begins to dissolve the burden. To unravel a puzzle, it is necessary to understand all its grains, texture and elusive nuances. In fact, we may safely say that understanding the puzzle in its entirety is the solution, for after all the solution is hiding in the makeup of the puzzle.
To substantiate the above assertion, let us look at a simple puzzle. A church bell takes 30 seconds to complete 6 gongs. How long will it take to complete 12 gongs? The answer as 60 seconds is wrong! When we understand what is happening in the process involved, we will see why that answer is wrong as also discover the right answer.
For a clue, the answer is more than 60 seconds. The answer is not given here because the fun is in finding the answer, not in just knowing it. Further, when you do strike the right answer by rubbing with the puzzle, there is a strange surety about it. That firsthand feeling is what is purported here as the non-verbal awareness associated with understanding oneself. It can be described as a matter of effortless detachment leading to direct sensing of what there is. It is like being an affectionate witness to oneself.
So, coming back to the issue of the self-imposed mental burden, the key is not in exerting effort to get rid of it, but in understanding how we are unaware of gathering the burden. The social pressure around us is pushing us all the time to be somebody and we fall a prey to that demand. The image that one has about oneself slowly gets hardened and begins to gather the burden.
Except for the fulfillment of our responsibilities, can we have the confidence to be just ourselves and not be pushed around by society? There are many other issues from our young days that take us along the route of increasing burden.
Just as understanding the puzzle solves it, understanding oneself is the key to unburdening the mind. On our becoming interested in it, many things help us move towards the inner freedom.
You come across the right people, the right books and the right challenges that polarize you and intensify you in your inward journey.
Once the unburdening process begins, it is irreversible. We learn a lot about the esoteric side of our existence. Wholesome life moves us from happy to happier waters… You may visit this website on spirituality.
