LAUNCH OF MY FORTHCOMING BOOK
ARE YOU REALLY HAPPY?
FUNDAMENTAL HAPPINESS
Hello Friends,
I had mentioned about my book in Series 11. We are now ready with the launch. It's on 4th October, 2013 at 6:30 PM at Crossword Bookstore, Kemp's Corner, Mumbai. All of you in Mumbai, do attend the launch. Ad Guru Prahlad Kakkar and Award Winning Actor Rajat Kapoor, have consented to launch the book. Here is the invite from the publisher, Embassy Books and the bookseller, Crossword:
Series 12
Now let us come to series 12.
So, how many of you could collect yourselves in a relaxed posture to notice each part of your body from foot to head? Could you be a passive observer of your beating heart, your breathing process? Could you, at some stage, feel your entire body internally? Did you passively observe your thoughts? Often the mind will try to pull you away to many distracting thoughts, pressing issues or worries. Please don't fight your mind. Just observe it. See it from a 'distance'. Create a 'space' between you and your mind. Treat your mind as an experience, just as your body is an experience.
While you notice different parts of your body, appreciate how each part is alive. Also remember, no part of your body, from foot to head, is you! You are 'being'. Similarly, you are not your mind. If you can fathom your mind as similar to your body, you have made a major progression in your journey towards FUNDAMENTAL HAPPINESS.
As you stabilize in this exercise, you will realize that you need not wait for the daily time slot allotted by you for it. You can do this many times during the day, even while you are at work! We all get interludes in our lives, amidst busyness, when we are doing nothing, just waiting for something. These are also moments when we get restless; we grumble about having to wait, wasting time, and try our best to fast forward our lives and move on.
If you have appreciated the stance behind the exercise that I have described, you will realize that you have given away so many opportunities that could have been used to quietly do this exercise for 10-15 minutes. Yes! You can do this exercise while waiting for transport, while traveling, waiting for a meeting in another office, before an interview (it actually helps!), when you are getting bored and have nothing to do (!), waiting in a queue for anything, or even when you are attending a meaningless but 'important' meeting where your presence is incidental!
So, how many of you could collect yourselves in a relaxed posture to notice each part of your body from foot to head? Could you be a passive observer of your beating heart, your breathing process? Could you, at some stage, feel your entire body internally? Did you passively observe your thoughts? Often the mind will try to pull you away to many distracting thoughts, pressing issues or worries. Please don't fight your mind. Just observe it. See it from a 'distance'. Create a 'space' between you and your mind. Treat your mind as an experience, just as your body is an experience.
While you notice different parts of your body, appreciate how each part is alive. Also remember, no part of your body, from foot to head, is you! You are 'being'. Similarly, you are not your mind. If you can fathom your mind as similar to your body, you have made a major progression in your journey towards FUNDAMENTAL HAPPINESS.
As you stabilize in this exercise, you will realize that you need not wait for the daily time slot allotted by you for it. You can do this many times during the day, even while you are at work! We all get interludes in our lives, amidst busyness, when we are doing nothing, just waiting for something. These are also moments when we get restless; we grumble about having to wait, wasting time, and try our best to fast forward our lives and move on.
If you have appreciated the stance behind the exercise that I have described, you will realize that you have given away so many opportunities that could have been used to quietly do this exercise for 10-15 minutes. Yes! You can do this exercise while waiting for transport, while traveling, waiting for a meeting in another office, before an interview (it actually helps!), when you are getting bored and have nothing to do (!), waiting in a queue for anything, or even when you are attending a meaningless but 'important' meeting where your presence is incidental!
But, please do not try to do this when you are required to pay full attention to something else. Rather, do what you are doing with full attention, instead of getting distracted by what else you have to do, or other pressing issues. Remember, doing whatever you do, joyfully, with full attention, without distraction, is itself a spiritual exercise. I have noticed many persons who are fully absorbed in what they are doing at a given time. I find them at peace. They are not grudging what they are doing. They are not in a hurry to finish what they are doing. Even if you try to distract them they are not likely to get distracted. Whenever you find a person like this among your friends or relatives, just pause and think about him or her. Chances are that you will find such persons mostly peaceful. They may not be consciously in a journey towards FUNDAMENTAL HAPPINESS, for they may lack the required awareness. Yet, they could be persons ready to embark on this journey.
Many of you would have seen craftsmen/women produce their artifacts at crafts melas. They are fully absorbed in their work. They do their work with a sense of joy and satisfaction. They do not get distracted by a crowd of people watching them. They are certainly more peaceful than many who are fully consumed by an urban, high paced life setting.
There could also be persons (many such persons, actually) who find no interludes at all. They are pulled in different directions all the time. Or they create perpetually 'interesting' and 'important' situations for them to be in. Such persons need to pause and take a look at themselves. Those who are themselves packing their lives with activities, leaving no space for anything else, need to ponder about how to deal with themselves. They could find some time, read my posts starting from the first one, and take a call. Those who are in jobs or situations that just do not leave them with any space for themselves, also need to ponder: is there really no free slot? This brings me to my suggestion that you take a holiday from life.
You will appreciate that this holiday, need not be a physical holiday. It is more to do with your stance in life. For some, it could well mean the need to actually take a holiday for some days. Well, you can soon come back to your usual life with a different orientation.
There are many more things we need to do. I have described just one exercise. We need to spend time and progress slowly. There is much more to follow.
Cheers!
Deepak Chatterjee
chatterjee.deepak33@gmail.com
facebook.com/deepak.chatterjee.944
Twitter: @Deepak33C
http://fundamentalhappiness.blogspot.com
Views are personal
There are many more things we need to do. I have described just one exercise. We need to spend time and progress slowly. There is much more to follow.
Cheers!
Deepak Chatterjee
chatterjee.deepak33@gmail.com
facebook.com/deepak.chatterjee.944
Twitter: @Deepak33C
http://fundamentalhappiness.blogspot.com
Views are personal
Sir, the exercise suggested by you has a seminal impact on the mind body system. It is medically established that observing our own breath, without interfering with its natural rhythm, lowers the blood pressure and reduces adrenalin flow in the blood. It also slows the breathing process and dilates the gap between two breaths. Mystics believe that the gap between one exhalation and the next inhalation opens the connect between the physical and the metaphysical. Probably here lies the possibility of touching the field where dwells fundamental happiness. Your book shall open new vistas of understanding for me on this subject.
ReplyDeleteIt is my hope that many people will benefit from it.
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