Naked in Eden

"Can you feel it in your bones? I felt like the forest had been awaiting my arrival" says Robin Easton in this true story about her and her husband who decided to go live in the a rainforest in Australia simply to get in touch with life. 

When i read those lines above, i remembered how i felt when i for the very first time in my life stepped into the rainforest at the National Park. While our guide was leading the way explaining something about the rainforest, i stood right in front of a gigantic bunch of bamboos and the beautiful path that so invitingly leads you deeper into the forest. In amazement i was mumbling over and over "oh my God! this is so beautiful!" And he smiled, nodded and coolly said "yes, it is" I was like how could you be so calm about SUCH beauty? Then i realized he has been going up and down that path for 15 years, everyday. It has become his home. He is not breathlessly crammed up in a concrete jungle like the rest of us in KL. No wonder he could be so calm about it! The forest is calm...and it is contagious! Its nothing like the little hills around KL where we go hiking. No this was really home! Every leaf, branch, trunk, flower, root, or fern was old...as old as life! and you could feel it your bones! yes after about 6 years i finally realised that is how i felt, in my bones! Thanks to Robin Easton for putting it precisely in her book, i didnt know how to explain the feeling before this :)

"Life is curious about itself" 

This is another line in the book which made me think. Its so true. We ARE life and yet WE are curious about life. We are looking for ourselves forgetting that WE ARE IT! what is there to look for? We've got to live it and be it. Nothing to look for....chasing our own tails as Osho says :)

 "Aah, the marvels we take for granted. Could you create a living butterfly? Life isnt only intelligent; it's dazzling creative in its self expression"

She says this after witnessing the miracle of a butterfly emerging out of its cocoon. How the very fragile life flutters out beautifully. Yes, do we even think about it as a miracle nowadays! We have take it for granted. But just for one moment pause to think how amazing a butterfly is! 

When the movie Avatar played in the cinemas, i heard some friends saying..."imagine there really was a world like Pandora" And i told them...what is there to imagine? If there really was a world like Pandora we would have gotten used to it and started destroying it just like what we are doing to Earth now. We wouldnt think it was beautiful or amazing or a miracle. If we can take Earth for granted...what difference would a Pandora make!?? 


"Mother nature doesn't judge, that's a human thing"

Yes, and that is why the human species is still surviving. If nature took revenge, we would not be here for we have been the worst pest infecting the surface. Destroying and polluting earth incessantly, and yet we go on wondering why all the chaos. Ever forgiving mother nature is only trying to help by balancing itself everytime we break her, still, if ever she looses her balance it is not her that is in trouble...she will just make adjustments and go on for another billion years. It is US who are in trouble. For we cant live without oksigen, or rain, or clean air or food. If any one of those changes happen...it is us who will be wiped out ...probably making way to a better species who will be intelligent enough to know how not to interfere with nature :)

Anyway, if you love the rainforest, you will love this book. Awesome experiences in the jungle especially the spiritual ones. How she is connected to the trees...the messages she received. The things she learnt about life. Its all inspiring and joyous. 

I sure loved it!! 
  

Went through Hell?

How often have you said or heard others say "I went through hell" or "i am going through hell"?

Just sometime last week, as i was reading a book, suddenly it occurred to me that no one says "I went through heaven" We might say...those were the good old times or those were memorable events or something like that but never that we went through heaven? Why? I questioned myself and an answer did pop up in my head. I decided to post it as my FB status immediately so i wouldn't forget the exact words.

So here it is:

"It is because heaven is always here, right at the center of our being, while hell is only the path to it. Once we reach the center, we stay, theres no going through it anymore. But because many do not recognize the center, they try to make a heaven halfway through hell and then go on wondering why they are not at peace. The trick is this, if you are not at peace then don't stay there. Just keep going. You will know it when you get there."

We have been asking another question for centuries "why do good people suffer while some evil ones seem to be better off in life? Why so unfair? Right?

But out of my own experiences plus some readings i realise that, we will never come out of our comfort zone and enter the path to self discovery if we are not put in trouble! We will be spoilt kids who have everything in life...yes we may live happily ever after and die. But then what? Why were we even here in the first place. We die not knowing head or tail of life. Who we are, what are our strengths, our limits, our capabilities, and above all the breathtaking beauty of life itself. No we would NEVER see it if we lived in our comfort zone all our lives. That is why Hindus call it "Sleeping" because it is like we are sleep walking, living in a dreamworld. Not seeing anything beyond matter. Not seeing ourselves...not feeling how we are throbbing with life. How beautifully connected we are with every atom of the universe. 

Nature does us a favour by throwing a few stones at our sleepy heads. To wake us up. And to SEE what really is going on. But problem comes when we refuse to wake up with the small pebbles, then we are hit with rocks and it gets bigger until we start bleeding These wake up calls become hell and we start wondering why everything is going wrong. 

It doesn't get better until we realise what is really wrong. Its not life that is wrong. It is not the people around us. It is not the place we live, not the weather, not the country, not the government, not the parents. husband or children. No, it is simply ourselves. We are lost. Groping in darkness, hitting ourselves on every wall and pillars and hurting ourselves unnecessarily. As life keep throwing stones at us....suddenly at ONE POINT we wake up! And it leaves us dazed for sometime not so much because we are amazed at what we see but because we can't believe what we have been missing! especially because it is so plain and clear! You don't need any scriptures to tell you what it is. You don't need to attend classes or meditate day and night. No you can see it simply just like that! You either see it or you don't...theres nothing in between! No almost there...or kind of...or on the way. Nope! when you see it ...you see it ALL! 

Some of you maybe asking "what is it that we see?" 

First of all, i SEE why no religion in the world is able to explain LIFE. There is NO possible definition to it. It doesn't even make any sense! But it is just there! And we are IT! 

Then i SEE oneness. No you...no me...no planets...no trees...no moon...sun or anything on its own. No...it is all merged in ONENESS. There are no boundaries...not even individual souls...everything is into everything else. Like ice cubes melting into water.

Then i SEE what controls this ONENESS. The energy called LOVE. Put love into ANYTHING and it grows. Gardening..cooking..music..painting..business..relationships...

The amazingly beautiful secret ingredient to LIFE! 

But you cant love your husband and hate your brother for instance..because that only means you are filled with both love and hatred. The tiniest pinch of hatred within us contaminates all the love we have and creates chaos in our lives. It doesn't get peaceful till we fill every nerve of ourselves with love and nothing but love. I know its easier said then done. Of course, but we can always work on the percentage for a beginning. Love is a stronger energy. A tiny bit of love will take over a large chunk of hatred. Then it spreads itself. 

Then i SEE beauty as a whole. Everything and everyone is beautiful. Everything is a miracle...from bugs to the galaxies, everything is beautiful beyond our imagination. 

Above all i SEE that what we SEE is just a fraction of the never ending mystery of life. Imagine we are ants. Can you explain to an ant how vast this world is! No matter what level of science or religious scriptures you use, no words will make an ant understand how big this universe is for it cant even SEE a full view of a human with its tiny eyes. 

That's exactly how big the TRUTH is to human beings. We cant see it...at least not with naked eyes. And this is where the most beautiful part of being human comes! Nature has given a telescope called the consciousness. The moment we look into it...we get to SEE it ALL! Its like an ant SEEING the universe. Crazy but true!

So getting back to the question. If you went through hell then, try to recognize the place you have ended up in. If it doesn't look like heaven to you, pack up and keep going! Don't dwell in the wrong place for too long. And don't worry about not knowing when you reach the center. YOU WILL KNOW. For you will feel like dancing all day, it will be a different world with NOTHING that you saw before. You WONT and CANT miss it! :D

So, good news IS...going through hell isn't bad after all unless you  stay stuck halfway. So, keep going!! Don't stop no matter what! 

Have faith in life. It always knows the best way!

Meanwhile...stay as cheerful and as happy as possible till it becomes the only reality!

And just in case you are wondering...yes, i went through hell.