Peace and Harmony in Daily Living

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Even if you have all the success, fame and money you want and the good health to enjoy it - are you happy and fulfilled? Why is it that we find ourselves seeking something more from life - all the time? Ramesh Balsekar says that, at some time or the other, each one of us has had a taste of what that is: an uninterrupted experience of peace and harmony. He also shows how we can arrive at this constant state of calm in our ordinary, daily living.
A simple examination of one's personal experience will reveal that what usually disrupts the peace and harmony in life is a thought about something we think we or someone else - should or shouldn't have done. Hence, a massive load of guilt and shame for oneself, or hatred and malice for the other, is perpetuated. By simply investigating one's own experience, it is possible to get relief from this bondage. What mystics have said for ages, is here viewed from the perspective of modern living: that actions are 'happenings' and not something 'done' by someone. This understanding is what actually contributes to and helps us in discovering the state of equanimity and peace, which we most ardently seek.
Try it, and you will see how simple it really is.

Ramesh S. Balsekar (1917-2009) was one of the world's leading Advaita sages and the author of over 30 books. The basic concept of his teaching is that, "All there is, is Consciousness; all actions are happenings the functioning of the Primal Energy, and not the doing by anyone. Ramesh framed his concepts in the context of daily living. from his experience as a bank president and a family man.

The famous psychoanalyst and social reformer, Erich Fromm, said that "Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve." Most of us view life from this perspective, getting caught up in the web of daily living its ups and downs, highs and lows and the emotional turmoils that usually go with it. As Advaita sage Ramesh Balsekar says, "What is not realized is that life is like a wide and deep river flowing incessantly, continuously, always in movement - whereas the day-to-day living for most people, seemingly out of choice, is a preference for the security and stagnancy of the little pools beside the river."
Ramesh avers that what usually disturbs our peace and tranquillity - is a thought. A thought about something that we should or shouldn't have done, or that which someone else should or shouldn't have done to us. Such thoughts result in feelings of ill will, hatred, jealousy, guilt, shame, fear, arrogance and self-righteous anger. Paul Valery, the French poet, could not have put it better when he said, "Man's greatest misfortune is that he has no organ, no kind of eyelid or brake to mask or block a thought, or all thoughts, when he wants to."
The Indian philosophy of Advaita is based upon the concept of 'non-duality' which affirms that there is only 'One Source'. Ramesh uses an apt metaphor to describe this: just as electricity passes through different gadgets and each of them, in turn, produces that which it is designed to; the impersonal energy operates, in a similar manner, through different body-mind organisms and each body-mind organism produces an output based on its programming and conditioning. No one is a 'doer' but, rather, all actions are happenings which could not have happened unless they were ordained by this 'One Source' which some identify as God.