A. Alice has six ice cream cones in her hand on a sunny day. She eats one and gives the rest to five of her friends. How many friends does she have?
B. Bhaskar has ten ice cream cones. He eats three, and throws the remaining away. How many friends does Bhaskar have?
The math of life is very different from the dry math we are taught in school. We should not confuse one for the other.
Today is the full day of #LivingDeeply, and today I’m talking about fullness.
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When we weren’t yet born, we weren’t there. When we were but a fetus in our mother’s womb, we were just a part of our mother. We were just not there, and our mother felt complete in her own identity, her own self. And her mother, she felt complete too, and so on going all the way back to the first Mother. This sense of complete-ness is inherited from a long chain of being.
When we die, the universe stays around, not feeling any less complete than when we are alive. What came from the Universe (or God, which is what people called “the Absolute” before religion became a retrograde term for some) has gone back into the Universe, and nothing changes in the whole-ness of the Universe because of this coming of going away of an individuality.
So what is it to live, and to feel like a full self? Our conscious mind creates our experience and we feel that we are complete. When I look out from my eyes, I don’t think “I somehow miss having X-ray vision”. When I feel things with my hand, I’m not thinking “I miss not having the ability to pass my hands through matter like a hot knife passes through butter”. We just don’t miss not being us. We feel our experience is complete, and we are a full self.
But still, deep inside, our sense of being a person is punctured by a sense of not being Whole. We know this feeling as a spiritual hunger, a yearning, or an unasked questioning that calls us. This sense of un-ease with our individual-ized identity drives us to madness, and we want to transcend this self and merge into the Universal Self.
All our efforts in life will be un-fulfilled unless they bring us a sense of fulfillment. Finding that fulfillment at work, in our own body, and in this space-time Universe…these are the things I have written about all month. Living deeply is about living a life that leads to fulfillment not just at the end, but in every moment. A life lived fully.
(PC: Daniel Leu)
Celebrating the Whole Whole-ness is celebrated in an early Upanishad in the yoga tradition. The first verse of the Isha-Upanishad is a concise definition of infinity, wholeness and the essence of our being.
ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात्पुर्णमुदच्यते
पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ॥
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥
Om Puurnnam-Adah Puurnnam-Idam Puurnnaat-Purnnam-Udacyate
Puurnnasya Puurnnam-Aadaaya Puurnnam-Eva-Avashissyate ||
Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||
Om. That is full; this is full.This fullness has been projected from that fullness. When this fullness merges in that fullness, all that remains is fullness. Om. Peace! Peace! Peace!
